A St Albans mum has slammed her housing association and blamed them for the death of her vulnerable neighbour who tragically died in a flat fire.

Kirsty Swaryczewska lives at Bowgate flats on Hillside Road and claims her pleas for help for the woman went unheard and ultimately led to the tragic incident on May 15.

It was around 6.30pm when a fire alarm could be heard from the flat of one of Kirsty's neighbours.

The woman inside the flat, who was in her 40s and was vulnerable, became trapped in the blaze and her concerned neighbours frantically tried to get her out.

But they couldn’t do anything.

Families who live in the block were evacuated and children up to the age of 12 had to sit and watch the woman banging on the glass desperate for help.

And as smoke submerged her flat, flames started to appear and she was sadly found dead by firefighters once the fire had been put out.

But this could have been prevented, says Kirsty, who claims the housing association, Home Group, are to blame.

Since the woman who died moved into the flats, it was clear that she needed professional mental health support, according to her neighbour.

In a bid to get her support, Kirsty claims she contacted Home Group up to 30 times in the six months she was living there because she “knew something like this would happen”.

“It could cause a fire at anytime”

In an email to Home Group, which has been seen by HertsLive , Kirsty warned them that the flat was a fire risk because it was apparent the vulnerable woman was throwing her cigarettes on the floor.

Five months and one day after that email was sent, the lady was sadly found dead as a result of a fire.

“These questions need to be answered,” Kirsty said.

“The problem, which is so heartbreaking, is that we told the housing association this exact thing would happen.

“We saw that there were cigarettes all over the floor and I emailed Home Group the next day saying that a fire could happen at any time.

“And moving to now, the poor lady has sadly died because of a fire - she needed mental health support and they failed her.

“If they put more in place and done more to help her, like we tried, she would still be alive.”

According to Kirsty, there were many situations, which were reported to Home Group, that showed the lady needed to be moved somewhere else for her own welfare.

If it wasn’t mental health support they were asking for, it was a request for her to move to somewhere with care services and at all times, the neighbours were always looking out for her.

But despite how apparent it was, the neighbours calls for help fell on deaf ears, says Kirsty.

She said: “Trying to get in contact with them, or getting a reply, was always a pain.

“Just me alone, I sent Home Group 20 to 30 emails about the poor lady.

“She quite simply needed help and no matter how many times we asked, or requested it, she got nothing.

“The thing that makes it worse is they knew even before she moved in that she was vulnerable as her family told me she moved from a Home Group property in London.

“But they claim they didn’t know. They have lied to us and it even took them three days to do a welfare call on us all.”

“My son hasn’t slept well since”

For her neighbours, seeing her desperate for help and desperately trying to get out was traumatic in itself, but it was harder to take because they had concerns this was going to happen.

But the children in the block of flats have been really shaken up by the incident, says Kirsty.

Her 12-year-old son has hardly slept since the fire and has been scared and upset since. Children were screaming as the smoke poured outside and it was emotional to watch, even for the adults.

“The emotional impact it has had on everyone has been damaging," Kirsty explained.

“My son hasn’t slept well since and I just feel for the kids because they were all there watching it, knowing that she was in there.

“Everyone is scared and upset, we had only spoken to her a few times and she was harmless - very friendly, but she needed help.

“As a community there was nothing more we could have done.

“We are still so upset and are thinking of her family during this time.”

Home Group say they strongly deny all claims and did everything they could to support the woman.

Jo Huxtable, Head of Service Delivery for Home Group in the South, said: “We are all truly saddened by the tragic event which took place last Friday (May 15).

"All of our thoughts are with our customer’s family at this time.

“We were aware that some residents had concerns for our customer’s well-being.

"That is why we were actively engaged with their wider support network over an extended period of time in order to try to get our customer the support they needed.

"My colleagues have gone over and above what is expected and they are all feeling the full impact of this tragic incident.”

Hertfordshire Constabulary say the woman's death is being treated as non-suspicious and a file is being prepared for the coroner.