Up in smoke

You'd think that if you were growing dope at home, you'd try not to attract attention. Not this bloke, as the Dom-Post reports:

A Whanganui man may have saved his burning house but he couldn't hide his cannabis plants from emergency services rushing to help.
Fire Service and police were called to a house fire on Niblett St, Whanganui, at 10.35am.
Sergeant Drew Allison, of Wanganui Police, said the fire had already been extinguished by the time they arrived but a quick inspection of the house uncovered 11 cannabis plants growing in one of the rooms.
''It wasn't the most sophisticated operation we've seen and the person was very cooperative,'' he said.
One of three occupants of the house, a 55-year-old man, will appear in Whanganui District Court on Tuesday on charges of cultivating cannabis and possession of utensils.
Wanganui Fire Service senior station officer Craig Gardiner said the fire had started in a separate room to the plants and was not at all related to the growing operation.
When the occupants noticed the fire, which by that stage had engulfed nearby curtains, they doused it with a garden hose.
At least one of them inhaled significants amounts of smoke while fighting the flames and was treated by paramedics.
''They took in a lot of smoke and put their own lives at risks. The guy probably had a little bit more reason than most to put the fire out.'' 

There's not a lot more that one can say about this. But Sgt Allison's comment that  ''It wasn't the most sophisticated operation we've seen" might well qualify as the understatement of the week.