An arsonist torched his flat, endangering the lives of neighbours, just hours after police had found him at a railway bridge threatening to jump.

Fuelled by eight cans of lager, crack cocaine and sleeping pills, Mark Gaade started two fires - one under his bed and the other in the living room - in what a judge described as "selfish, self-centred and highly dangerous” behaviour.

A family of four residing above the 51-year-old at the council property in Strood were among those who fled in a state of fear and shock, and with the children dressed in their pyjamas.

Their home was left uninhabitable, toys and other belongings worth £8,000 destroyed, and the youngsters, both said to be asthmatic, traumatised.

Gaade, a dad of two, was found by firefighters sitting on his blazing bed amid dense smoke, Maidstone Crown Court was told.

Although he could not recall doing so, he had also turned on taps, flooding the communal stairs and a flat below.

Several suicide notes were found but when asked about whether he had been trying to kill himself, he said he would not "try to burn to death" as he had a noose hanging above a door.

But having been urged to spare Gaade jail and provide the help he was now "willing to accept", a judge told the long-standing addict that although he had mental health issues, it was his abuse of alcohol and drugs that had led to him "recklessly" putting people's lives at risk that night.

The court heard that even while on remand awaiting sentence Gaade had taken the synthetic drug spice, and also told a probation officer that on his eventual release, his first intention was to have a drink.

He was originally charged with arson with intent to endanger life but the prosecution offered no evidence after he pleaded guilty to the less serious, alternative offence of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.

It was at around 8.30pm on March 4 this year that a downstairs neighbour at the block of flats in Bligh Way noticed the flooding, smelt burning and went to investigate.

Once in the communal area she saw smoke billowing from Gaade's flat and knocked desperately on the door, said prosecutor Warwick Tatford at the sentencing hearing on Wednesday (August 28).

With the door being answered and seeing the flames inside, she warned an "unsteady and dazed" Gaade he had to leave. However, he simply shut the door in her face.

Other neighbours later told police they were shocked at the amount of smoke and could feel their "eyes burning" as they rushed outside to await the fire service.

Gaade was eventually located in his blazing first-floor flat by firefighters using a thermal-imaging camera.

He was conscious and told a paramedic who treated him at the scene that he had started the fire while sat on his sofa in a bid to take his own life, adding he "had had enough" and "could not go on".

Describing the building as having been "engulfed by a rather considerable fire", Mr Tatford said: "This was a disturbing incident because it is perfectly clear the defendant was in a state dangerous to himself and feeling suicidal.

“He has a long-standing drug problem and a long-standing history of depression, and what happened on March 4 was extremely dangerous to his neighbours.

“It is perfectly obvious that if others had not realised what was going on and the fire brigade not arrived, this really could have been most disastrous.

"In the end, the person put most at risk was this defendant."

Those actions by you were selfish, self-centred and carried out with no real thought for the potential consequences for the adults and children who lived in the flats

The court heard concerns about his apparently deteriorating behaviour had been raised in the preceding days and weeks.

Residents reported "considerable banging and noise" coming from his flat, and he had also been seen on a previous occasion standing in the corridor holding a knife and kettle.

One occupant described him as "looking unwell" and believed he was "crying out for help".

Just two hours before the arson itself, police had been called to Northfleet train station where they talked him down from a bridge before taking him home.

Among the suicide notes found in the flat once the fire had been extinguished was one stating "Don't cremate me, no service, no God, no Amen".

Mr Tatford told the court: "A very clear picture of the desperate state of mind he was in is shown by his own notes.

"No doubt it was that desperate state of mind that caused him to act so recklessly and thoughtlessly to those around him but mercifully without tragic results."

The cost to residents, as well as repairs to the building and provision of emergency accommodation, was said to total more than £40,000.

The court was told that despite his traumatic childhood and 35 years of drug and alcohol misuse, Gaade had "always functioned", managing to work, marry and have children,

But his lawyer, Benjamin Hargreaves, said at the time of the arson, the dad had reached a state of feeling “extremely low” and needed assistance in tackling his chronic addiction.

A prison sentence, he added, would "just delay" addressing the problem.

"People don't ask for or accept help until they are at the very bottom of their feelings and attitudes and now the defendant has hit a very deep, dark place," he told the court.

"He clearly must have been in a most disturbed and upset position to allow himself to commit such an act and be responsible for it.

"Obviously, the remorse is genuine. He has to accept he endangered so many people by his own recklessness or stupidity, and that weighs very heavily on him.

"There could be no complaint at all if the court were to determine that a sentence of imprisonment is a just sentence.

"But I think we are just delaying the problem because at some point he needs to have the full support of a dedicated, experienced and expert group to rid him of the problems he has created himself."

On passing sentence, however, Judge Gareth Branston said although he had "some sympathy" for Gaade’s personal difficulties and accepted that there had been no intent to harm others that night, he had to consider public protection when it came to deciding the appropriate punishment.

Jailing him for two-and-a-half years, he remarked: "Those actions by you were selfish, self-centred and carried out with no real thought for the potential consequences for the adults and children who lived in the flats.

"The actions were highly dangerous, you had consumed a considerable amount of alcohol and crack cocaine, and it was reckless action on your part.

"Though I am satisfied your mental health had been affected by your drug addiction and a level of depression, it contributed only a little to your actions.

"The primary driver was your alcohol and drug abuse and your mental health provides little mitigation.

"Your offending was so serious and put so many neighbours at risk that only an immediate custodial sentence is appropriate."