Electricity bosses have been ordered to investigate power supplies in a street where a pensioner died in a house fire.

Power firm EDF Energy faces having to dig up electricity cables in Parkway, Eastbourne, as a result.

An inquest was told Dorothy Howse, 84, was overcome by fumes after an electrical fault sparked a fire that smouldered for hours at her detached home.

Neighbours had experienced problems with flickering lights, tripped fuses and blown light bulbs in Parkway, Eastbourne for months, an inquest was told.

The mother-of-three was found dead in her bedroom at her detached home after a paperboy raised the alarm at 7.20am on May 9, last year.

The fire was caused by an electrical fault in a cupboard under the stairs where the supply entered the house.

It spread to papers and household items kept in the cupboard, completely burning away the staircase.

Mrs Howse is thought to have died from the effects of breathing in smoke from the smouldering fire at least eight hours earlier.

She had spent the previous afternoon chatting and drinking tea with friend and neighbour Ailna Martin.

Mrs Martin said there was no evidence of a fire when she left the house late that afternoon.

Nurse Anne Longton arrived to see her mother shortly afterwards and left at 6.30pm.

Mrs Longton said: "She often asked me to replace light bulbs in the lounge which had blown. Far more than I would do at home."

Neighbour Peter Baker, a teacher, said electrical fuses in his house would often trip and a year earlier the street lights in Parkway had dimmed and then gone out completely.

He said he had noticed an electrical burning smell in the air in Parkway the night before Mrs Howse died.

Thomas Crouch, an EDF engineer, said only one fault had been reported to the company six months before the fire, which had affected a wide area around Parkway.

He said the electricity sub-station in Parkway had been checked and no faults were found.

Mark Hobbs, an East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service (ESFRS) investigator said the most likely cause of the fire was an electrical fault.

He said the fire service dealt with 15 to 18 household electrical fires in East Sussex every year.

Mr Hobbs said as a result of Mrs Howse's death, ESFRS is now advising householders not to store flammable material near electricity meters and fuse boxes.

He added that home owners should also consider having their electrical consumer units and fuse boxes checked by qualified electricians at regular intervals.

Mr Crouch said EDF engineers checked company meters in homes every two years and meter readers made visual checks when taking readings.

Iain Peck, a forensic investigator, said he found no fault with the electricity supply EDF was responsible for in the house.

He added: "If the fire was started by an electrical fault it is likely to have been on the consumer side."

Alan Craze, coroner for East Sussex, recorded a verdict of accidental death after the inquest in yesterday.

He said he will write to the chairman or chief executive of EDF asking the company to investigate its supply in the area further.

He added: "There are enough questions about the supply in the Parkway area to warrant a considerable amount of further investigation and work being done."