Engineer Mark Clift told an inquest into the death of Minnie Talbot that he signed documents to say he had tested the alarm, but admitted he had not.

Mr Clift said the alarm at Donald Greaves House, in Wordsworth Avenue, Corby, was not working when he went to service it in February 2006 because it was wired incorrectly.

He rewired it but did not retest the faulty alarm, despite signing a certificate stating they were working properly.

The inquest had been told Mrs Talbot died after a smoke alarm failed to work when the flame from a candle spread to her sheltered accommodation
flat.

She is thought to have put the candle on top of a cupboard in her lavatory to provide some light after electrical storms left homes without power on the evening of July 4, 2006.

Mrs Talbot's family is taking legal advice after hearing evidence at the inquest in Kettering yesterday.

A representative of Corby Council, which runs Donald Greaves House, told the inquest it has since changed a number of policies, which now includes checking alarms on a weekly basis.

Outside court, Mrs Talbot's grandson Matthew Talbot, 37, said: "Grandma was fiercely independent, very English, very proud of her Barnsley football team and Yorkshire cricket team. She loved to travel.

"She was a happy woman who loved her family and we miss her terribly."

On the night of the fire, Mrs Talbot was visited by a carer who put her to bed, turned off the lights and locked the door as she left.

At about 11.15pm neighbour Kenneth O'Meara saw smoke coming from the flat. He called the fire service before using a fire extinguisher to break the door open, but was unable to get into the room because of the smoke.

Corby Council call centre worker Pauline Fairbairn told the inquest she called out the home's mobile warden Marjorie Downs when she started to receive alerts from a second alarm in Mrs Talbot's flat and failed to reach the pensioner on her intercom.

The procedure at the time was to call the warden to visit premises before alerting the fire service.

But firefighters had already sent three crews to the home within six minutes of the 999 call from Mr O'Meara. Mrs Talbot was treated by paramedics at the scene but later died.

Corby Council now ensures wardens remain on-site during breaks and that call centre staff immediately call 999 if they cannot get a response from the resident via the intercom or phone.

Recording a narrative verdict, coroner Anne Pember said Mrs Talbot was an elderly lady who had been suffering a form of heart disease.