OIL company boss Alan Gaynor died after being engulfed in a fireball of vapours from a petrol can he had used to light a bonfire.

Mr Gaynor, who was chief executive of an oil company, suffered 80 per cent burns to his body following the explosion.

A High Wycombe inquest heard on Tuesday how the 48-year-old from Denner Hill, Great Missenden, had been careful to move the petrol can away from the fire before lighting it on the afternoon of May 28.

But the petrol had vaporised, spread and set Mr Gaynor alight.

His brother-in-law, Walter Creagh, and his wife were staying at Mr Gaynor's house when they heard a scream from the garden.

Mr Creagh told the inquest he had been hanging baskets at the house while Mr Gaynor collected debris for a bonfire at the bottom of a field at his home.

He said: "I was on a ladder when I heard a scream and I ran to the bottom of the field."

He said that when he saw Mr Gaynor he told his wife, Patricia, to go and get a blanket and phone for an ambulance.

Mr Gaynor had been rolling in the grass to try to put the flames out and Mr Creagh said he tried to talk to him and get him to stand up.

He said he had been 'very alert' and even asked for painkillers following the incident.

He was taken to hospital and treated for burns but died at Mount Vernon Hospital in Northwood on June 11.

Richard Hulett, Coroner for Buckinghamshire, came to a verdict of accidental death and said: "This was a accident involving the use of petrol, igniting a huge bonfire.

"Cruelly, people do withdraw to remove petrol from the area but it does allow vapour to spread around the fire. It produces vapour which can set someone alight in a split second."