PENSIONER James Green died after an ember from his pipe set the inside of his car ablaze.

And at the inquest, a senior fire officer warned that cars are potential death traps, filled with highly flammable materials.

Station officer Andy Barnes said that once a fire took hold in a vehicle it spread very quickly.

And he urged every motorist to equip their vehicle with a small extinguisher which, in many cases, would nip the fire in the bud and save lives.

Coroner Michael Singleton also expressed his "grave concern" at the lack of regulations governing the use of fire retardant and fire resistant materials in cars.

The inquest heard that Mr Green, 80, of St James Road, Blackburn, died as a result of burns.

His car caught fire after an ember from his pipe blew on to the driver's seat as he sat in the stationary car at a Ribble Valley beauty spot.

He and his wife, Mabel, had only bought the car a week earlier and she said her husband had only been out in the vehicle three times. They had gone to Marls Wood while she walked their dogs.

Mr Green did not die until over two weeks after the incident, and just two days after it happened he had told PC John Ramsbottom what had happened.

As he sat in the car smoking his pipe and reading the paper, Mr Green opened his window slightly and an ember from his pipe blew on to the driver's seat and immediately burst into flames. Mr Green tried to beat out the flames with a newspaper but the flames got stronger.

Mr Green then realised that his trousers were on fire but could not get out immediately because he could not find the door handle. He eventually released the door by putting his hand out of the window before rolling on the grass to extinguish the flames.

Station officer Barnes said that when the fire brigade arrived the passenger compartment of the car was severely damaged.

The coroner asked if it would be right to assume that car upholstery met similar requirements to household furniture in terms of fire resistance.

"A lot of the materials in cars are extremely flammable and once a small fire takes hold in a car it will spread very rapidly," said Mr Barnes.

After the inquest he revealed that within a month of Mr Green's death, there had been two road traffic accidents in the Blackburn area in which three people had died as a result of fire. None of those cars, or the cars of people who stopped to help, had been equipped with a fire extinguisher.

"We recommend a 1kg dry powder extinguisher which can literally be the difference between life and death," he said.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Singleton said it caused him grave concern that there were no restrictions on the materials used inside cars.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.