A COMMUNITY campaigner killed in a fire at his home had been fighting alcoholism and drinking prevented him from escaping the blaze.

Chris Cooke died after a candle caused the sofa he was sitting on to catch fire at his flat in Essex Place, Montague Street, Brighton, on February 20.

An inquest into his death yesterday heard he had battled a dependency to alcohol, anxiety and depression for years.

He had been drinking at the time of the fire and it is thought he did not notice the "smouldering" of the sofa until he had suffered third degree burns to his legs.

At that point he is thought to have got up - but due to intoxication stumbled into his bedroom instead of fleeing the flat for safety - he suffered smoke inhalation and died two days later without ever having regained consciousness at the Royal Sussex County Hospital

Brighton and Hove Coroner Veronica Hamilton Deeley concluded Chris's death was an accident - in that he died from smoke inhalation contributed to by having drunk alcohol.

She said: "He clearly had consumed alcohol. He had suffered burns to his legs but drinking alcohol left him numbed and sadly he wasn't able to escape from the flat.

"He escaped to the bedroom and collapsed on the bed."

The month before his death his mother Elizabeth had contacted his GP saying she was "at her wit's end". She had come to Brighton to visit him for his birthday but he would not answer the door and stayed in bed drinking.

Specialist fire investigator Julie Gilbert-King said Chris's 13th floor flat would have been filling with thick smouldering black smoke for more than an hour before his next door neighbour Lesley Butterworth noticed.

Firefighters could barely see their hands in front of their faces when they entered - then found Chris unconscious on the floor.

"The sofa had turned to ash," she told the inquest at Brighton Coroner's Court.

"It would have been going for a while.

"The burns on his lower limbs suggest he must have sustained them sitting on the sofa.

"Having sustained those burns he has got up, gone into the bedroom and succumbed to smoke inhalation.

"In his flat we found dozens of candlesticks. Every candle had a candlestick or holder which is what we would recommend, but one must have been placed too close to flammable materials - in this case the sofa."

"There are a number of common factors we often see in fatal fires, alcohol being one of them."

The inquest also heard that emergency services suffered difficulties in rescuing Chris from his flat, because of his weight and being on the 13th floor, however he would not have survived even if he had been rescued sooner.

Ms Hamilton Deeley heard that special flexible stretchers - known as evac-mats - could have helped and suggested they could be provided to East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service as Chris's legacy.