A CORONER has warned that inhaling lighter fuel is “like playing Russian Roulette with a loaded pistol” after hearing how butane gas claimed the life of an East Lancashire teenager.

An inquest heard how Andrew Braysford, 18, originally from Nelson, was breathing in butane gas in a room at Blackburn’s Salvation Army Hostel when he died.

His mother Kirsten has pleaded with other young men to learn lessons from the young father-of-one’s tragic demise in July.

Recording a misadventure verdict, Blackburn coroner Michael Singleton said: “Clearly anybody who inhales butane gas does so at considerable personal risk.

“It is almost a form of Russian Roulette. When you put the gas to your mouth, you do not know what the consequences might be.

“The number of deaths from inhaling butane has tailed off in recent years and I hope this is not an indication this kind of behaviour is coming back.”

The inquest heard Mr Braysford had been living at the hostel for two weeks in July. Pal James O'Connor, who was also living at the hostel, said he went to Walton High School, Nelson, with him.

On the day of his friend’s death, James had bought a canister of lighter fuel from a pound shop in Blackburn town centre.

He said they went back to his room listening to music and “chilling out” and Andrew started “tooting” butane.

They had been in the room for 20 minutes when there was a knock at the door.

“It was the manager asking who was in my room," said James.

“He came in and said Andrew had to leave but when I looked back he wasn't moving. I tried to find a pulse but couldn't.”

James said the friends had used butane “all the time” when they were aged 16.

The inquest heard Andrew died as the result of the toxic effects of inhaling butane.

Speaking just days after his death, Mrs Braysford said: “Whenever I spoke to him about it he had the attitude that these drugs were okay, a party thing, that everyone did it.

“He’d read all the leaflets about the dangers, but he thought he was invincible and that it wouldn’t happen to him. But the body can only take so much.”

Mrs Braysford said Andrew had been trying to turn his life around for the sake of his two-year-old son AJ, at the time of his death.

Drugs experts warned about the dangers of butane gas after Andrews’s