Exposure to asbestos following a fire at her school led to the death of a Harpenden mother some 30 years later.

Louise Lambert, of Rothamsted Avenue, remembered walking through clouds of dust in a passageway at her school - which was outside the area - while remedial work took place after the blaze.

At this time many buildings had pipes which were covered or lagged with asbestos, and it is likely that this was when she was exposed to fibres of the deadly substance.

Mrs Lambert first started to show the symptoms of exposure in summer 2011 and following investigations she was diagnosed with mesothelioma in January 2012, before passing away on August 15, 2013.

Assistant coroner Graham Danbury, who presided over her inquest, said because she had not been exposed to asbestos during her working life he could not give a verdict of industrial disease, and ruled that she died from exposure to asbestos in childhood.

He added that in his 25 years as a coroner he had never come across someone so young who had died from mesothelioma, and extended his sympathies to Mrs Lambert’s husband and children.