The roof was destroyed in the blaze

The inquest heard how the blaze was almost certainly started when one of Mrs Balbini's young sons Stuart set fire to mattress with a lighter.

Mrs Balbini's son brother Leighton - who had been sleeping downstairs with his brother Lyndon - tried to get the mattress out.

But he had to drop the mattress by the front door, where paint pots and brushes made the fire worse.

"The staircase then acted much like the escalators in the King's Cross tragedy, and created a flue," said Alan Longhurst, Area Fire Safety Officer.

Carmarthenshire coroner John Owen described the blaze as the most fierce house fire he had ever come across.

Alan Longhurst: "The staircase created a flue"

Mr Owen described the incident as a "tragic sequence of events", and the fire service is hoping that lessons will be learnt.

All four victims of the blaze were buried at Tumble Community Cemetery in December.

Dyfed-Powys Police Chief Inspector Steve Wilkins had earlier said that the ferocity of the fire, which caused the roof of the house to collapse, meant it was impossible for anyone to have rescued the family.

"Everybody tried as much as they could to try to save the people in the house, but the speed the fire has gone through the house meant it was a hopeless cause," said Mr Wilkins after the blaze.

Grassed over

The burnt house, which had been described as a "scar on the community", was knocked down in March 2002, after the Balbini family agreed to the demolition.

But it has not yet been decided what will happen with the site.

"Following the demolition work, the ground will be grassed over, but it hasn't as yet been decided what to do with the land in the longer term," a local authority spokesman said.

"The county council has made assurances, however, that nothing will be done without fully consulting with the residents of the area first."