A coroner yesterday praised two neighbours who dragged a 92-year-old widow from her blazing home after a gas blast.

Steven Farnell and Adrian Thomas pulled Eliza Butterworth from her terraced home in Birkenshaw Lane, Birkenshaw, but she died three weeks later.

Coroner Roger Whittaker said: "Mr Farnell and Mr Thomas took a great risk and should be commended for their bravery."

The men, of Birkenshaw Lane, told an inquest in Huddersfield that on December 9 last year they heard an explosion from Mrs Butterworth's house.

The front window had been blown out in the blast from the gas cooker.

The two men found Mrs Butterworth trying to get out of the front door. Mr Farnell said she could not find her door key so he climbed into the house and helped Mrs Butterworth through the window.

He stayed in the house fighting the flames until the fire service arrived while Mr Thomas led Mrs Butterworth to safety.

Mr Farnell's partner, Mrs Donna Johnson, called an ambulance and Mrs Butterworth was taken to Dewsbury District Hospital. She was later moved to the burns unit at Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield.

She had suffered burns to her head, face and hands and died of a heart attack 17 days later on Boxing Day.

After the inquest unemployed father-of-four Mr Farnell, 53, said: "I wasn't expecting to be praised. I simply acted on the spur of the moment.

"I happened to be in the house that night. I would do the same again if I had to. My only thought when I saw smoke was to get the elderly lady out of the house and to put out the flames."

Mr Mark Chapman, of gas supply company TransCo, said: "I carried out an inspection of the main supply pipes around the property and there was no fault. I suspect the cooker had been left switched on but not lit."

Family friend Mrs Collette Kemp said that Mrs Butterworth had left the gas taps on her cooker switched on twice before.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, coroner Mr Whittaker said the fire service found five of the six control knobs in the on position.

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