Prisoner heard screaming 'I'm on fire' before death

Warning: This article contains details that some may find distressing.

Prisoners heard an inmate screaming "I'm on fire" in the 33 minutes it took for her to be let out of her cell during a blaze.

Clare Dupree, 48, from Cardiff, died in December 2022 — two days after being injured in a fire started by a vape in her cell at HMP Eastwood Park in Falfield, South Gloucestershire.

The inmate in the neighbouring cell told an inquest into Dupree's death at Avon Coroner's Court earlier that, as smoke started to spread into her cell, "it felt like a long time before anyone came at all".

The inquest previously heard that Dupree's cell was not equipped with an automatic fire detection device and the door handle was too hot to touch by the time staff arrived.

Dupree later died from a brain injury and respiratory infection, according to pathologist Dr Russell Delaney. He previously told the inquest it was not clear whether earlier removal from her cell would have improved her chances of survival.

The jury heard regulations state an inmate should be removed from their cell within 20 minutes of a fire or the cell should be ventilated.

Dupree had been sent to prison a month before the fire after threatening a security guard with a knife when he caught her trying to steal a pregnancy test.

In statements given to the coroner, her family described her as "delightful and sensitive", but said she had significant mental health problems.

The inmate who was in the cell next to Dupree's said that she had heard her shout "random things" out of her window after they had collected their dinner.

"When she was shouting out the window that she was on fire, other girls were shouting back at her to shut up and that she was mad," she said.

The inquest heard another prisoner set off the fire alarm after seeing "big clouds of thick smoke coming out of the top of Clare's door".

"Clare was screaming, 'I'm on fire, help help, help,' I think she was by the window trying to get air…. I think she knew she was going to die," the woman said.

She added that Dupree had been in high spirits the day before, which was Christmas Day.

"She was dancing on the wing, she was happy, she was in her own little world, that's why everyone was shocked with what happened the next day."

Earlier this week, the jury heard about Dupree's mental health in the lead up to her death.

When she arrived at the prison, she had stopped taking prescribed antipsychotic medication and was experiencing paranoia, delusional thinking and hallucinations.

"Clare was presenting as psychotic from the moment she came back into prison," a consultant psychiatrist told the court.

An assessment process which looks at risk of suicide and self harm was opened and Dupree's mental health improved after she started taking antipsychotic medication, the court heard.

As a result, the assessment process ended after three weeks to reflect that there were no longer major concerns about Dupree.

Dupree was seen by the mental health team for the last time on 23 December and the nurse reported she was "still voicing some paranoid and delusional ideas", but was showing better mental health and had no suicidal thoughts.

"It might have been the best I'd ever seen her," the nurse told the court.

The jury heard that Dupree missed one dose of her antipsychotic medication on the morning before the fire broke out.

But the consultant psychiatrist said it was "unlikely" to have had a "significant" impact on her as the medication does not wear off that quickly.

The inquest continues.

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