RUBI Robinson and her daughter Sky had many friends. Sky was a lively, happy little girl who lived up to her middle name, Sunshine.

Together they were among protesters who occupied the long-neglected White Swan Hotel in Piccadilly, briefly transforming it into the Rainbow Peace Hotel last year.

Soon afterwards Rubi and Sky were killed in a fire at their Acomb home. Sky was days short of her third birthday.

This shocking tragedy last August cast a shadow over York's summer. What makes it even more painful is the knowledge that their deaths could have been prevented.

Fire investigators picking through the wreckage after the blaze were confronted with a nightmare. Everything inside that house either increased the intensity of the fire or mitigated against a safe evacuation.

The old sofa was made of material which burned easily and gave off thick toxic fumes. Upstairs windows were locked and the keys kept downstairs.

The front door was blocked shut, and the back door left open, providing a ready source of oxygen to feed the flames.

Most depressingly for the fire officers, the smoke alarm was either faulty or lacked a battery.

No one imagines they will ever be caught in a house fire. Rubi clearly didn't. But we should.

If this terrible story prompts people to check their smoke alarms and think through escape routes, then some good has come from it.

Updated: 11:00 Thursday, September 09, 2004