AN arsonist had to be rescued by emergency crews when he got trapped in a fire he started - after his accomplice left him despite him walking with a crutch.

Temporarily-disabled Gary Bell was stranded inside the blazing building while his friend Lee Morrow fled the scene in Horden, County Durham, a court heard.

It is not known how or why the fire started, but it is believed the pair had been looking for things to steal when Bell used his lighter to see in the dark.

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, sitting at Teesside Crown Court, said the 42-year-old might have either dropped the flame or brushed against something with it.

The blaze gutted the business premises which was being used to store electrical goods and other stock, and caused major damage to the flat and contents above.

The occupants of the flat escaped - but their cat was killed - and they told in victim impact statements how they feared they were going to die in the fire.

Morrow, 47, claimed he had never been inside the store, but was found guilty of a joint charge of arson being reckless whether life was endangered.

Bell pleaded guilty to the charge, as well as another identical count - relating to a small fire in a yard at the same place just hours earlier in May last year.

The court heard how tenant Mr Stoddard, 58, was watching television after 4am when he heard a bang from downstairs, realised people were inside, so locked them in.

Twenty minutes later, the street was filling with smoke, and CCTV showed Morrow climbing over the yard wall and walk off, said Stephen Grattage, prosecuting.

Police and firefighters were told somebody was inside the building, so rushed in to rescue Bell - who was said to have been "singed" with black hands.

His lawyer, Martin Scarborough, said: "He says how very grateful he is to the fire services and the police for getting him out because he was effectively trapped."

Andrew Finlay, for Morrow, said: "He was a drug-user at the time of this offending, and that explains his need to be foraging on this particular night."

Morrow, of Sixth Street, Horden, was jailed for five years, and Bell, of Blackhills Road, also in Horden, was given five-and-a-half years yesterday.

Judge Bourne-Arton told them: "People were endangered. If you read the statements, they were in the flat and fortunately Mr Stoddard was awake watching television. Had he not been, who knows what the consequences could have been."

The businessman who used the ground-floor premises in Eden Street lost £4,000 of stock and was not insured, and lost income which supplemented his pension.