An inquest has heard that a fire in Co Londonderry which claimed the life of an 18-month-old baby girl was started by a faulty 15-year-old electric blanket.
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Sarah Jane Mullan died in hospital after suffering extensive burns during the blaze at her Dungiven home in June 2009.
During an inquest at the Coroner's Court in Derry forensic scientist Ken Arnold said: "All electric blankets should be serviced every three years and dumped after 10 years".
The blanket, which was faulty and which malfunctioned, was on the baby girl's parents' bed when the appliance caught fire on 16 June.
Sarah Jane was asleep in a cot in her parents' bedroom at their Killyblight Road home near Dungiven.
She suffered extensive burns to her face and head and died the following day in Altnagelvin Hospital.
Her parents, Stephen and Marie Mullan, told Northern Ireland's Senior Coroner John L. Leckey, how they were alerted to the fire when two smoke alarms in their farmhouse home went off.
Both tried to rescue the youngest of their four children from their bedroom but they said they were beaten back by a combination of flames, intense heat and thick smoke.
Mrs Mullan said she put a blanket over her head before she entered her bedroom but she was unable to withstand the intense heat.
She said she usually switched on the electric blanket for 10 to 20 minutes, before turning it off when she and her husband went to bed.
Mrs Mullan said she had only put her baby to bed minutes before the smoke alarms were activated.
Sarah Jane's uncle, Trevor Mullan, who lives in a neighbouring house, told the inquest that he placed a ladder under the first floor bedroom window in an attempt to rescue the baby girl.
He said he smashed the window and trained a farmyard hose onto the fire.
Mr Mullan said he was unable to get into the burning bedroom because of the heat and flames but he did manage to reach in and grab Sarah Jane by her leg and pull her from her cot.
The Coroner was told that baby Sarah Jane was alive as members of the emergency services applied first aid but she later died in hospital.
Mr Leckey, as well as two senior fire officers, said it was the first time they had been involved in an inquest in which a faulty electric blanket had caused a fatal fire.
Forensic scientist Ken Arnold said the regular usage and the folding of an electric blanket could cause the wiring system in the appliance to become brittle.
"An electric blanket should be serviced every three years but I don't think many people do that. It is also recommended that an electric blanket should be dumped after ten years, that is according to the literature I have read. This was a fire of great intensity and rapidity", he said.
Describing the death of baby Sarah Jane as "a terrible tragedy", the Coroner said the efforts to attempt to save the baby were valiant, adding that in no way should Mr and Mrs Mullan "feel any responsibility for the tragic death of their baby daughter".
© UTV News