PEOPLE who are hard-up have been warned not to take risks if they try to heat their homes on the cheap.

The alert follows an incident in which firefighters found that a pensioner had unwittingly created a “homemade bomb” with a propane gas cylinder.

He had poorly connected the fuel bottle with a heater – and this led to a fire, firefighters said.

John Wilde, 64, a retired lorry driver, was in his kitchen when flames started shooting from the 17kg gas bottle, normally meant for outdoors use.

He said he stayed in his home to douse the flames with a wet towel, but was pulled from the building by firefighters.

Mr Wilde said: “It is my fault because I didn’t tighten the valve enough – I should have tightened it up with a spanner.

“The gas leaked out of the top of the cylinder and because the gas is heavier than air it came down on to a floor heater.

“It was such a shock and the flames came up quite high.”

He said he felt lucky that the bottle did not explode and that there was no smoke damage, although water had spoiled a television and CD player.

Two crews from Clacton fire station were alerted to the blaze in the bungalow, in Austin Avenue, Jaywick.