A WOMAN who has been described as a ‘best friend and mum’ died in a house fire in St Mary Cray last night (November 19).

Marion Smyth, who would have been 66 on Christmas Day, was pronounced dead at her home in Anglesea Road at about 9.20pm.

A man in his late teen tried to get in to the house to save the grandmother but the smoke was too thick and the flames were too fierce.

Her neighbour Ronnie Brown said: “When I looked out of my window at first I thought it was fog but it was moving too fast and I then I smelled the smoke.

“The flames were coming out of the window and I was a bit hysterical.

“There were two couples walking down the road with tots in pushchairs and one of the men said ‘Is someone in there?’ and I said ‘She will be dead by now’ but he still opened the front door and had to back away.”

Ms Brown says her neighbour had been battling with lung cancer which had spread to her brain and she was largely housebound due to osteoporosis.

The pair had known each other for 34 years and had seen each other through life’s ups and downs.

She added: “Marion was a bit like my best friend and my mum.

“We were always there for each other and we went through quite a lot together, like my divorces and bereavements in our families.

“Neither of us were good at showing emotions and it was only with each other that we let our guard down.”

The 56-year-old added: “I will miss her nasty sense of humour, she just had a real quick witted sense of humour.

“She had always been that way.

“Even when she was housebound she did not lose it and she would mainly be taking the piss out of me.”

Ms Smyth had two daughters and one son and was said to be well-liked by everyone who knew her.

A post-mortem examination and an inquest will be opened in due course.

Investigators from the Met Police and the London Fire Brigade are investigating the circumstances of the fire which is currently being treated as unexplained.