An investigation into fatal fires in Devon and Somerset has identified several factors which crop up again and again.
The study found that in many cases the occupants had been smoking or using alcohol or drugs, and there was also a high incidence of deaths among people with mental health problems or poor mobility.
But the single most common factor was that the people killed had been living alone with no-one else to raise the alarm or help them escape.
However the research found that in 61 of the 88 fatal fires investigated, there had been no working smoke alarm - which could have saved many lives.
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