A FORMER Police Community Support Officer found alongside her blazing car told people who went to her aid to: “Just leave me. Don’t come and harm yourselves".

The men managed to move her away and fetched water and a fire extinguisher from a nearby farm but 59-year-old Debra Devereux was so badly burned that she died later the same day.

An inquest in Ruthin heard that Ms Devereux, of Railway Terrace, Afonwen, near Mold, had suffered from mental health problems for a couple of years and been diagnosed as bipolar, and at one stage had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

In a statement read at the hearing her partner Clare Hodges said Ms Devereux felt that medication was making her worse and in the days leading to her death on September 23, 2021, she was concerned about her partner’s health.

Witnesses described how they heard a loud bang and saw smoke rising from a spot alongside the A543 on Denbigh Moors near Bylchau.

The first on the scene was Welsh Water worker Colin Foulkes who then alerted Open Reach engineers Neil Davies and Lewis Jones.

“It was strange – she seemed so calm,” said Mr Jones.

When farmer Ian Wells arrived she said: “Please leave me.”

Ms Devereux was taken by air ambulance to the burns unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where plastic surgeon said she had 97% grade 3 burns, which were unsurviveable.

Fire investigator Robert Mason told the inquest that a petrol container was found in the passenger footwell and with no electrical fault found the only two possible causes were either deliberate ignition or accidental while playing with the lighter.

But the inquest heard from her family that she was not a smoker.

Recording a conclusion of suicide, Kate Sutherland, assistant coroner for North Wales East and Central, said that although no suicide notes were left she found that Ms Devereux had intentionally started the fire and told people that she didn’t want to be moved.

“It is more likely than not that she intended death to be the outcome,” she said.

Describing it as “a terrible tragic set of circumstances”, the coroner added: “She was clearly troubled but had the support of the community mental health team and of those around her.”