A yob who dubbed himself “The Firestarter” and sang the tune of that name by chart-toppers The Prodigy while starting a dozen blazes in 16 days has been locked up indefinitely.

Eight-foot high flames threatened to engulf a house in Wolverhampton where a mother and her 14-year-old son slept during one of the arson attacks, the city’s crown court was told.

Matthew Jones set fences and piles of rubbish alight after falling in love with bonfires as a child and because he was “bored”.

The 20-year-old burned down sheds and scorched homes in the All Saints district last June. Four were started on the same night.

Jones, from All Saints Road, told friends he wanted to petrol bomb a house and had asked them to get fire lighters for him.

Prosecutor Hugh O’Brien Quinn said: “He asked them to call him The Firestarter and began singing the song The Firestarter. He said that he started the fires out of boredom and thought it exciting to watch them spread.”

The blazes were lit at night mainly around Vicarage Road and Granville Street. Jobless Jones, who has learning difficulties, admitted starting one fire that recklessly endangered life and asked for 11 arson attacks to be taken into consideration.

Judge Nicholas Webb ordered Jones be detained in a young offenders institution for public protection for an indefinite period of at least two years.