A MAN who carried out a fire attack on the Blackburn home of someone he had earlier visited has been jailed for 32 months.

Raymond Hargreaves was angry and had been drinking when he set fire to a bin and jammed a door behind a first floor flat in New Chapel Street.

Before the incident in August, a passerby had heard him shout: "I'm going to burn your house down".

The occupant, Ashley Langtree, managed to force his way out of the back door, after smoke was seen billowing into the flat. The fire brigade then dealt with the situation.

Hargreaves, 23, of Ulverston Close, pleaded guilty to a charge of arson, being reckless whether life would be endangered.

Paul Brookwell, prosecuting at Preston Crown Court, said Mr Langtree and others had spent sometime on August 20, drinking in a nearby park.

He and others, including Hargreaves, later went back to the mid terraced flat.

At around 9.45pm the defendant was seen outside shouting at a window and throwing up a stick. He was shouting: "Come down here, I'm going to ...

sort you out. I am going to kill you".

At one point Mr Langtree threw Hargreaves' jumper out of the window.

The defendant was seen walking away, kicking shop shutters as he went.

He shouted: "I'm going to burn your house down.”

Mr Langtree went on to spot smoke coming into the flat through the back door. Another door had been placed against the door, preventing an escape.

"He managed to force himself out by forcing the door, scattering the fire in debris in the bin, scattering the contents", said Mr Brookwell.

He tried to stamp it out, but without success. The fire brigade came and put it out relatively easily.

Daniel Prowse, defending, handed in a letter from the defendant to the court. He realised that an immediate prison sentence would follow.

The damage involved had been limited and there had been no injury.

Hargreaves had been heavily in drink at the time.

He must pay a £120 statutory surcharge.