TWO friends are facing jail after a botched bid to get rid of rubbish resulted in a devastating £43,000 house blaze.

Sam Job and Declan Glendinning set fire to a pile of furniture in a back garden in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

The pair used £1 worth of petrol in a pop bottle to start the blaze among sofas and mattresses at a friend's home.

The flames quickly spread to the property in Bates Close - gutting downstairs and filling the first floor with smoke.

An occupant of the house was forced to flee through a window before emergency crews arrived on the scene on April 13.

Yesterday, Job, 20, and 17-year-old Glendinning were due to go on trial on a charge of arson with intent to endanger life.

They pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of arson being reckless as to whether property would be destroyed or damaged.

The pair, from Newton Aycliffe, were given bail at Teesside Crown Court and will return to be sentenced on December 11.

The judge, Recorder Simon Jackson, QC, told them: "I'm not giving you any indication as to what the sentence will be.

"You have pleaded guilty. You both face the prospect of custody, but, perhaps, less so for the younger defendant."

The house was occupied by a woman in her 40s who has learning difficulties, and youths would regularly gather there.

The back garden was full of unwanted furniture which was meant to be collected, but there was a delay in picking it up.

Job and Glendinning suggested they could solve the problem by burning it, and the woman gave them money for some petrol.

A source said: "Because of the sheer volume of the furniture, it went up very quickly and spread to the property.

"The householder escaped through a front window and everything inside was wrecked - either by fire of by smoke."

Job, of Maling Green, and Glendinning, of Scott Place, will be interviewed by probation officials before they are sentenced.