A couple who died in a horrific house fire along with their pet dog have been officially named as police confirmed it was an accident. Paul Cox, 51, and Jennifer Jones, 40, were killed along with their Jack Russell, Scoobie.
Flames engulfed the two-storey mid-terraced house in Sneinton, near Nottingham, in the early hours of March 26. Neighbours in Whittier Road raised the alarm after they were awoken by loud bangs as the blaze ripped through the Victorian property at 12.43am.
Firefighters battled for almost two hours to extinguish the inferno before the bodies of Paul, Jennifer and Scoobie were found inside. Friends of the couple say Paul, a joiner, had returned from the pub hours before the blaze.
One local said: “Paul was a lovely bloke and Jennifer was always cheerful too. From what people around here are saying, it was an electrical fault, maybe a toaster or something like that.
"They'd probably been to the pub, come home and made a snack but the fire broke out after they'd crashed out in bed. The speed of the fire was frightening, it just tore through the property.
Detective Sergeant James Hirst, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Our thoughts are with the families and friends at this difficult time. Their deaths are not being treated as suspicious and a file will be prepared for the coroner.”
