A 71-year-old man was high on monkey dust when he set fire to bedding – just hours after he was seen roaming around naked.
Naked pensioner Walter Harrison had been seen earlier shouting, throwing things and banging on neighbours’ doors.
The fire he subsequently started on Churnet View in Leek, Stoke-on-Trent, left a £100,000 trail of destruction.
At Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court, Harrison, was jailed for four-and-a-half years.
The pensioner already has 23 previous convictions for 53 offences, Stoke On Trent Live reported.
Emily Andrews, prosecuting, told the court that a neighbour had called the police in the early hours of the morning on August 17 after she saw Harrison naked outside her home.
She saw him shouting oddities, throwing objects around the garden and not making any sense while speaking.
The neighbour also noticed smoke outside.
Walter Harrison, 71, pleaded guilty at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court to to arson with intent to endanger life
Harrison was seen naked outside his home on Churnet View, just hours earlier
Ms Andrews said he was seen with his dog, Axel, who was collected by the RSPCA unharmed from the police station the following day.
She added: ‘The fire started to spread into other rooms. Its origin was combustible materials located on the double bed including the duvet, pillows, and mattress. The flame was introduced by human interaction.’
The defendant was arrested, but he was not interviewed due to concerns of smoke inhalation and he was taken to hospital instead.
Barry White, mitigating, told the court that much of the defendant’s life has been spent in prison, and said he has had no proper education outside of incarceration.
Mr White added: ‘He is sorry for what happened and appreciates the damage he caused and the risks he posed. He knows today will be prison, perhaps this is a second home to him, but I would ask his sentence to be as short as possible.’
Harrison, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to arson with intent to endanger life.
The street is mostly old people’s bungalows for retirees and also contains a middle school.
The court heard Harrison used a lighter to set fire to his bed, which then spread to the living room, bedroom and hallway. It will now need to be re-gutted and rebuilt from inside.
Sentencing Harrison, Judge Trevor Meegan said: ‘There’s around £100,000 worth of damage – that is a loss for the community, a loss of houses for elderly people, which are in need.’
He added that Harrison was stood outside his house screaming and ‘displaying erratic behaviour’ while naked.
