A CORONER has reached a conclusion during an inquest into the death of a man in a canal boat fire.

Widnes resident Peter Richard Dolan died aged 63 when the narrow boat he resided on caught fire.

Emergency services were called to Bridgewater Canal, near Whitbarrow Road in Lymm, at around 3.30am on March 8 earlier this year.

Cheshire Police arrived to find a barge “well alight”, with Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service firefighters extinguishing the flames.

The body of a man was discovered and later identified by a forensic scientist via a DNA test.

At an inquest heard on Wednesday at Warrington Coroner’s Court, senior coroner for Cheshire Jacqueline Devonish ruled that the blaze was an accident.

She explained that embers ejected from the solid fuel stove within the vessel were “the likely ignition source”.

Mr Dolan, whose address was given as St Luke’s Crescent in Widnes, suffered from inhalation of fumes and severe burns.

His medical cause of death was given as multiple organ failure.