Candle lit for Pope’s funeral started fatal blaze

A BLAZE that killed a 70-year-old pensioner started when she lit a candle during the Pope’s funeral, it emerged this week.
Committed Christian Irene Linnane was watching Pope John Paul II’s funeral on television when the fire started at her 12th floor flat in Newton Street, Holborn.
No smoke detectors or fire alarms had been fitted at the council block.
Her desperate call to the fire brigade – one hour into the three-hour service – revealed a candle she had lit on top of her TV was the cause, her nephew Douglas Walker said.
The call, recorded at 9.54am, came as billions of viewers around the world watched the late Pope’s funeral.
Desperate calls were also made to Camden Council and a gas firm after Ms Linane became trapped in her bedroom.
It is believed curtains in her sitting room caught alight from the candle and flared up when she opened a window. Fire investigators, who visited the charred site again on Tuesday, say their investigation continues.
The blaze at the 13-storey block gutted eight flats and took 40 firefighters from four fire stations three-and-a-half hours to contain as glass rained down on the street below.
One woman was rescued from the 12th floor by a Fire Brigade ‘cherry picker’ platform while four others were rescued via the stairs.
Seven families, six of them leaseholders, have been temporarily rehoused.
A Town Hall spokesman said alarms and smoke detectors had not been fitted because the building was built before regulations came into place.
Stirling-born Ms Linane spoke with a thick Scottish accent but had lived in the capital for 50 years, working as a chef, nanny and latterly as a volunteer at the YMCA Charity Shop in Goodge Street.
Friends Janet Groves and Kim Morrissey said she had a fine singing voice and enjoyed music hall, theatre and nightclubbing.
They described her as generous, compassionate, exuberant and given to acts of selfless kindness.
She leaves behind two daughters, a son, two sisters a brother, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren and is survived by her mother.
Mr Walker said: “She was quite a character and was well-known in the neighbourhood.
“She had a real sense of fun.”
Barry Webb, who used to chair the Richard Seiffert-designed block’s tenants’ association, said: “She came to all our meetings and was well liked by everybody.
“What a terrible way for her to go. Perhaps in the morning people aren’t quite as careful as they might otherwise be.”
He added: “Camden Council has been wonderful at helping everybody deal with this tragedy.”
An inquest opened and adjourned on Monday last week.
Ms Linnane’s funeral will be held at Golders Green Crematorium, East Chapel, at 1.30pm today (Thursday).
A wake will be held at the Princess Louise pub in High Holborn at 3pm.