Cannabis grower sparked £10k blaze when his tab ‘went bang’
A "stupid" cannabis grower sparked a £10,000 blaze at his family home after he used a flammable gas to process the drugs – then lit a cigarette which went "bang".
Jordan Blakey suffered extensive burns to his arms after he used butane to extract cannabis oil then decided to have a smoke.
Newcastle Crown Court heardhisbedroomatthehouse at The Oval, Washington, endedup"100percentdamagedby fire" and he was "very lucky" to get out.
The other upstairs rooms were 50 percent destroyed by fire and were left 100 per cent smoke damaged.
The stairs were also badly damaged by fire and smoke, meaning anyone on the upper floor could have been trapped.
The badly burned 25-yearold, who was "heavily under the influence of cannabis" had approached firefighters at the scene, asking to retrieve propertyfrominsideandconfessed: "I'll be honest with you, I was extracting cannabis oil from thecannabis,usingbutanegas.
"When I finished I was stupid, didn't think, and lit a cigarette and it went bang."
The court heard Blakey's family was forced to move out of the house while the owners Gentoo carried out £10,000 worth of repairs and the rental companyhasorderedthatheis not allowed back.
Prosecutor Shaun Dodds told the court when firefighters arrived at the property on
April 7 last year flames were coming out of a window.
Firefighters went inside
and two small cannabis plants were found growing in an upstairs cupboard.
Fire experts said if anyone had been one of the other upstairs bedrooms "they would not have been able to get out properlyduetotheintensityof thefire",whichwas"lifethreatening".
The court heard fortunately, Blakey's mother, father and niece, who lived at the property with him, were all out at the time.
Blakey pleaded guilty to arson being reckless to whether life would be endangered and producing cannabis.
MrRecorderMarkGiuliani sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment, suspended fortwoyears,andsaidheknew there was a "risk" with using butane in the circumstances and was "heavily under the influence of cannabis" at the time.
Richard Holland, defending, said Blakey, now of HollinshillRoad,Washington,hasan extremely supportive family.