THE family of a man who died from 90% burns across his body have paid tribute to him after an inquest into his death in Wirral.

Paul Williams, 40, died after his clothes caught fire while he was burning rubbish at a former nursing home in Wallasey, which was being converted into bedsits.

A witness described him kneeling on the ground with his back to her and said his clothes seemed to have “melted off him”.

The father-of-three was last seen by colleagues stripping wallpaper near the attic of Ballynanty nursing home, on Seabank Road.

But, a short time later, he was spotted engulfed in flames by neighbour Kimberley Wilson, just after 2pm on January 17, 2007.

He was taken to Arrowe Park Hospital but had suffered extensive burns.

He died that evening in the intensive therapy unit.

Following an inquest at Wallasey Town Hall, in which a jury returned a verdict of accidental death, his brother Stephen said Paul Williams had been “a really funny guy” who loved music and cars.

Stephen Williams said: “Paul would do anything for anyone, he was a really funny guy and had not long made up with his ex-partner.”

His partner, Margaret Williams, said they had been together for 16 years, off and on, since their son Paul was born.

The couple also have two daughters, Rebecca, 14, and Chloe, 9, and kept in touch with phone calls every night.

The inquest heard the day before he died Paul Williams had been burning waste in the back of the building he was helping renovate with other workers and John Berkley, a director of Loango Estates, which owns the building.

Mr Berkley, whose company owns around 50 rented properties, said he had left Mr Williams working upstairs.

In a statement, he admitted his company had no specific health and safety plan documented for the renovation work at that property.

Health and Safety Executive inspector Nicholas Rigby told the inquest he served two orders on Loango Estates regarding the safety plan and fire regulations after being called in to investigate the fire, and consultants were brought in by the company to comply with these.

Graham Atkinson, principal scientific officer for the HSE, told the inquest tests on scraps of fabric recovered from the nursing home garden had shown the overall worn by Mr Williams could have ignited easily, despite having been treated with fire retardant.

He said there was no evidence petrol or anything similar had been used to start the fires in the braziers where the rubbish was burnt, or had contaminated Mr Williams’s clothes.

He said repeated washing of the overalls had probably washed out the fire retardant, allowing them to be easily ignited, and recommended others be warned of this risk.