A TRAGIC dad-of-17 and five children died in a devastating inferno at a farmhouse that had a "mystery gas smell" just two months before the blaze, an inquest heard today.

David Cuthbertson, 68, and children Just Raine, 11, Reef Raine, 10, Misty Raine, nine, Patch Raine, six and Gypsy Grey Raine, four, all died in the tragic blaze.

Three children - Leaf, 13, Blue, 12, and Farr, 11 - survived after escaping the inferno in Llangammarch Wells, Powys, and ran to a neighbour's house where they raised the alarm.

An inquest into their deaths in Welshpool, Wales, heard from one of his older children that there had been a 'mystery smell of gas' in the house in the weeks before the fire.

Robin Terry, Mr Cuthbertson's son from a previous relationship, said: "There had been a smell of gas in the property for about two months. I spoke to Dave about it but he didn't know where it was coming from.

"It was a farmhouse that had not been well looked after before Dave took it over.

"There were gas bottles used for the cooker kept outside the property. The water boiler was kept on all the time because it was the main heating for the house.

The coroner was told a number of fireworks bought for a Bonfire Night display were also inside the property at the time.

Mr Terry said 13-year-old Leaf had escaped the blaze but believed it had started by the log fire in the property's living room.

He said: "I was hysterical on the night of the fire. The children were in a state of shock. They were all in blankets and not saying anything. Leaf said it started in the living room by the ground floor fire."

The children's devastated mother Sima Khan, 44, told the hearing Mr Cuthbertson was a fulltime carer of the children having stopped working three years earlier.

She said: "Dave was a builder and had been working on a local house. The electric hadn’t been turned off. He was electrocuted and fell, breaking his back.

"I hadn't lived at the farmhouse for three-and-a-half years but I saw the children as often as possible. All the children were happy, bright and intelligent."

Emergency services rushed to the farmhouse shortly after midnight on October 30 last year when one of the children ran to a neighbour's house and raised the alarm.

Neighbours said the family rented the farmhouse and had lived in the village for 15 years after moving from the south of England.

In a tragic twist, it has also emerged that a fireman who attended the scene was the son-in-law of Mr Cuthbertson.

David Price, 30, had been called out to the blaze before realising it was the home of his in-laws.

His father-in-law had desperately worked to lower the children to the ground from an upstairs window to safety.

But as flames raged through the remote property, the 68-year-old was unable to help five younger children trapped with him.

The inquest continues.