3:26pm Wednesday 1st July 2009
By Chris Harris
A PENSIONER who was rescued from his burning home at Abbotts Barton on Friday evening, has died.
Nigel Pearce-Smith, 73, who lived alone in sheltered housing at Simonds Court, died the next day at Southampton General Hospital.
Neighbour, Terry Mitchell, 64, raised the alarm shortly after 11pm after smelling smoke.
“I looked outside the window and saw flames in the window opposite. I ran down the stairs but, by the time I got round there, the curtains were alight.
“I opened his front door and the smoke knocked me back. I shouted for him to come to me. I tried three times but, on at least one occasion, he said: ‘No, I can’t’.
"Then I heard the fire service arrive.”
Two firefighters rescued the pensioner, who was unconscious, but breathing. He was taken to hospital in Southampton while a fire investigation unit began work on establishing how the blaze had started.
A spokesman for Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service said: “The cause of the fire is currently under investigation, but the fire was contained within the living room where it seems to have centred around a chair. Initial investigations suggest it may have been smoking-related.”
He added that Mr Pearce-Smith had four children and that one of his sons would often play the guitar at the front of the property when he visited.
It took 17 firefighters an hour to extinguish the flames, with appliances from Winchester and Eastleigh attending. A special equipment unit was also used, as well as six breathing apparatus, two hose reels and a jet.
Police confirmed that the fire was being treated as accidental and that there were no suspicious circumstances.
It is the first fatal fire in Winchester in several years with smoke alarms now cutting the risk of death. The last fatal fire in the district was at Brambridge House in 2006, when a 44-year-old woman died.
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