Tributes have been paid to a solicitor found dead following a fire at her home.

Helen Bishop was found after the emergency services were called to Park Drive, Sittingbourne, at 10.30am on Wednesday.

The alarm was raised after Mrs Bishop’s boss at High Street firm Christopher Harris & Co solicitors, visited the house.

She had become concerned after the mother-of-two failed to arrive at work or answer calls from colleagues worried about her.

Next-door-neighbour Barbara Willis said she was alerted to something being wrong when Mrs Bishop’s boss knocked on her door.

The two women became especially concerned when it was noticed the lounge windows at Mrs Bishop’s house were blacked out with soot.

A workmen, who was at Mrs Willis’ home, climbed over the fence and found the back door was open.

He walked into the house and pushed open the lounge door – to find it blacked out in soot and smoke. He left and the police were called.

Mrs Willis said: “All hell was let loose. Fire engines, an ambulance, police and everything. It was obvious whoever was in there wasn’t going to be alive.

“She was a very nice neighbour and I liked her very, much although I didn’t see much of her. I suppose it was the smoke that killed her. It’s very sad; a tragic accident. I couldn’t believe it.”

Although the 42-year-old worked for Christopher Harris, she had also worked for several other solicitors in the town.

Michael Clarke, from Davis, Simmonds & Donaghey solicitors, also in the high street, said: “I classed her as a friend as well as a colleague and it beggars belief that this has happened.

“We both specialised in family law so we knew each other quite well. She was a very approachable person and I had known her for about seven years.”

And Barry Bond, senior partner at Jarmans in Bell Road, said: “Helen was a lovely Irish girl who worked in the practice as a trainee before moving on.

“She brought a lot of joy to a lot of people and was a damn good lawyer. She had an infectious Irish humour.”

Sittingbourne fire station crew manager Adrian Boorman said: “We were called after a neighbour noticed blackened windows and we there for over an hour.”

Two pumps were sent – one from Sittingbourne and the other from Faversham – and crews in breathing equipment were sent inside to tackle the fire and search for casualties. It was then that her body was found.

Fire investigation officers and crime scene investigators were at the scene and will work together to determine the cause of the fire which happened on the ground floor of the house.

Mrs Bishop was married to Peter Bishop, a former reporter on the Kent Messenger in the town and the former Evening Post in Chatham before he headed for Fleet Street,

Police are not treating the circumstances of her death as suspicious and a post-mortem examination is due to held next week.