TWO men were badly burned in an explosion that rocked a Dudley bedsit after they decided to have a cigarette while using highly inflammable lighter fuel to soak cannabis leaves.

Matthew Coley and Terrence Scarrett were trying to convert the controlled drug into cannabis oil to line cigarette papers when the blast destroyed their room in the Stourbridge Road property.

The explosion caused £50,000 worth of damage as it reduced the room to a "cinder" and blew all the plasterwork off the walls.

"You both deliberately embarked on a highly dangerous exercise for your own ends," Judge Michael Challinor told 26-year-old Coley and Scarrett, aged 22.

He said their illicit operation and the resulting explosion not only put at risk others inside the five bedroomed property but also the lives of firemen called out to deal with the incident.

"You were converting cannabis leaves into oil and that involved soaking them in highly inflammable lighter fuel," said the judge.

"That is something that should only be undertaken in controlled conditions."

The judge said he took into account the fact they had both suffered serious burns in the blast but he ruled a substantial prison sentence had to be imposed to deter others from doing the same thing.

Coley, of Blewitt Street, Pensnett, and Scarrett, of Kestrel Road, Russells Hall, both admitted arson and being reckless as to whether lives were endangered and were both jailed for three years.

Andrew Wallace, prosecuting, told Wolverhampton Crown Court that after the explosion one tenant heard screams coming from the room that was being rented by Coley and the two men were both rushed to hospital for treatment to their injuries He said butane gas was highly volatile and a fire officer said there could have been an explosion if a light switch had shorted.

"To smoke a cigarette is more than foolhardy in such a dangerous situation," he said, adding that all of the tenants in the property were forced to move out, with other rooms suffering smoke and water damage and the owner of the bedsit lost more than £3,000 over a three month period.

Christopher O'Gorman, defending Scarrett, stressed there had never been a deliberate intention to start a fire and their actions had been stupid in what were "reckless circumstances".

He said he had been left scarred by his injuries having been in agony for some time and both he and Nicole Steers, defending, Coley maintained the pair were full of remorse for their actions.