A WORRIED son warned his mother about the dangers of using a wood burning stove -- just hours before she died in a house fire.

Concerned student David Field told his mum, Anne Hlawka, that it was not safe to keep piles of wood next to the stove in the living room of her Bradford Street home after a previous small fire.

An inquest in Bolton heard yesterday how in September last year the stove had been left with a door open while Mrs Hlawka's husband, Leon, fed the fire with pieces of wood from cabinets in the kitchen, which was being renovated.

A piece of wood later fell from the stove -- starting the fatal fire.

The court heard that 47-year-old mother of two Mrs Hlawka had met her husband, whom she married five years ago, through the Spiritualist Church they both belonged to.

He helped her run the Hazelbank Guest House she owned on Bradford Street and the couple lived in a rented house next door.

On the evening she died Mr Hlawka had been hosting a regular meeting of spiritualists in the living room of their home, keeping the stove burning with pieces of kitchen cabinet wood.

At about 10pm Mrs Hlawka came into the room to say goodnight and went to bed. After the meeting finished Mr Hlawka stayed up to wait for a late arriving guest booked into the guest house.

When the guest arrived, he went next door to show him to his room and waited there while the man went to find a cashpoint to pay for his accommodation.

Mr Hlawka told coroner Jennifer Leeming how he was walking back to his home when the bay window of the house blew out. He tried in vain to get into the house via the front door.

"It was a wall of heat. There was a lot of smoke. I did try to get up the stairs but I couldn't," he said.

Attempts to reach the bedroom at the back of the house by climbing onto the roof of a kitchen extension also failed.

Firemen discovered Mrs Hlawka's body lying on the floor of her bedroom and a post mortem examination later revealed she had died from breathing in smoke and fumes. A fire service investigation concluded the blaze had been caused by a piece of wood partially pushed into the wood burning stove falling out of the open door on to the floor, igniting furnishings and other materials.

It was estimated that temperatures in the room could have reached as high as 1,000 Celsius.

It was also revealed at the inquest that batteries from a smoke alarm fitted in the house had previously been removed as it kept going off.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mrs Leeming added: "A plea -- please don't take the batteries out of smoke alarms no matter what nuisance they are. They can save lives.

"It might not have made any difference on this occasion, but equally we can't be sure that it wouldn't have done."

After the inquest Mr Hlawka paid tribute to his wife.

"She was my love, my life and my wife and I miss her," he said.