A DRUG addict put hundreds of lives at risk when he chopped up a door and started a bonfire to cook bacon and eggs.
Fire crews in breathing apparatus rushed to the 13th-storey flat, in Great Thornton Street, west Hull, after Malcolm Storey started the blaze on his balcony.
Storey, 48, had returned to the tower block – where 350 people live – with two friends and wanted a midnight fry-up.
Hull Crown Court heard that, drunk and high on drugs, unemployed Storey chopped up a bedroom door for firewood because his electricity meter had run out.
He piled the wood 2ft high on his balcony and set it alight. The blaze quickly spread to the balcony next door. Sentencing Storey to four months in prison after he pleaded guilty to a charge of arson and being reckless as to whether life was endangered, Judge John Dowse said: "It only takes a couple of minutes to think of the danger this could have caused to a block of flats."
The court heard resident Anya Gibbon looked down from her 14th-floor flat to see the fire well alight. She dialled 999.
"I heard a man crashing about on the balcony, chopping up wood," said Mrs Gibbon.
"After about 15 or 20 minutes, I saw smoke coming up from a fire."
Storey's girlfriend at the time, Kaylie Huntley, put the flames out as the firefighters arrived.
Miss Huntley, 22, said: "I was in bed when I heard the firemen coming into the flat.
"I said to Malcolm, 'What are you doing?' He said, 'To be honest, I didn't think'.
"All I thought of is, 'Was he was cooking drugs?' It was starting to spread to Colin's balcony next door and he would never have got out.
"I went out and grabbed a bucket of water and put it out."
Firefighters found a pan of bacon and eggs next to the burning embers.
Defending Storey – who has 97 previous convictions – John Thackray said: "It was a stupid decision to have a barbecue.
"It was quickly put out. He was high on something.
"He has been taking drugs for 20 years."
Judge Dowse said he expected to see Storey before the courts again.
The judge told him: "You are a man with 97 previous convictions, who has had opportunities in the past and never taken them.
"It is quite likely we will see you back before the courts in the not-too-distant future."
Following the court hearing, Storey was released because of the time he had spent in custody since his arrest.
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