Woman dies in blaze tragedy

A WOMAN has died tragically in a fire – on the eve of her husband’s first-ever art exhibition at Warrington.
Amateur artist Michael Madden, aged 82, and his wife, Christine, were taken to hospital in the early hours of today after the fire at their bungalow home in Barleycastle Lane, Appleton.
Sadly, Mrs Madden died despite receiving first aid treatment from firefighters at the scene and later from paramedics.
An exhibition of 100 paintings by Dr Madden – a former research physicist – was due to open today in a barn at nearby Oaklegh Lodge Farm.
But signs stating that the exhibition had been cancelled were displayed outside the farm.
Dr Madden was a research physicist working for the Central Electricity Generating Board and the National Nuclear Corporation for more than 31 years.
But in 1991, when he was 58, he and his wife and their children, Gerard and Pamela, took up farming on a 14-acre smallholding, breeding pigs and sheep.
At the same time, he went back to his early love of painting, joining Warrington Art Group.
He has since exhibited with the art group at Warrington Art Gallery, Dunham Massey, Arley Hall and Tatton Park.
But this week’s show would have been his first-ever solo exhibition.
Fire crews from Warrington, Stockton Heath and Birchwood went to the scene and tackled the blaze using a hosereel jet.
Cause of the fire is now being investigated but fire chiefs said the indications are that it started accidentally.