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…
