Drink, drugs in fatal fire

A pot of cooking oil left on a stove after a night of drinking and drug-taking led to the deaths of a woman and child, a Palmerston North coroner has found.

A 3-year-old girl and a 22-year-old woman died in a house fire in Foxton on November 18 last year. The girl's mother, 24, escaped from the house.

Coroner Tim Scott said both women had drunk half a cask of wine and 1 boxes of beer as well as smoked a small amount of cannabis.