A pensioner on a boating holiday was killed when a gas cooker on his cabin cruiser exploded when he went to boil a kettle.

Lawrence Lockie and his friend Harvey Britten suffered extensive burns when flames engulfed them on their 20ft boat Katrina, an inquest heard.

Both men struggled to the bank as the boat, which they bought together more than 20 years ago, sank to the bottom of the Grand Union Canal near the Blisworth Tunnel.

Mr. Lockie 76, of Robinson Road, Rushden, died 24 hours later after suffering a heart attack brought on by his burns and shock.

Peter Lovegrove, North Bucks deputy coroner, recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Mr. Britten, 66, told the inquest at Stoke Mandeville yesterday that they had been on holiday for two days when the explosion happened on August 14.

He said. ‘At about 8.45am I was tidying up when he went to fill the kettle. I heard him strike a match and there was an enormous explosion. There were big flames shooting up all around us. We were able to get out of the boat and up onto the bank. There had been no smell of gas on the boat. In the past, if the wind had blown out the gas light then we would have been able to smell it.’

Plastic surgeon Anthony Roberts, a director of the burns unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, said he believed Mr. Lockie had a good chance of surviving, despite 16 per cent burns on his body.

He said. ‘What actually killed the man was his heart failing.’

County fire officer James Stewart said debris had been recovered from the boat. He said the explosion had been caused by a fault in the regulator on the cooker which would have controlled the supply of gas.