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Police say a Christchurch house meth laboratory explosion has cost $1,133,000 in property damage and medical bills.
Jason Paul Hutcheson, 32-year-old unemployed, who needed $1 million of medical treatment for the burns he received when his Hei Hei Road lab blew up, admitted the drugs charges today and
is headed for the High Court for sentence in December.
And police repeated their warnings about the dangers faced by the community, drug makers, police, and firefighters because of the clandestine laboratories and the volatile chemicals they use.
"This danger is further compounded by the use of makeshift equipment and little attention to matters of safety," Police prosecutor Sergeant Ash Tabb told Christchurch District Court.
"Overseas experience has recorded a significant number of deaths from clan labs due to explosions, fires, and the generating of toxic gases.
"It is reported in the United States that about 25 per cent of clandestine drug laboratories located by law enforcement agencies are found after they explode. These risks have now become a reality in New Zealand."
In 2000, there were nine clan labs found nationally. In 2006 there were 211.
Police said five people were at the house in Hei Hei Rd about 11pm on March 26.
Hutcheson had set up the laboratory in the laundry and spare bedroom.
He and a woman were in the bedroom, which also contained a 20 litre drum of tolulene and other drug paraphernalia.
He was in the initial stages of pseudoephedrine extraction, a process that requires tolulene and heat.
The flame ignited the tolulene which set fire to the room and Hutcheson's clothing.
The woman ran out warning the others there was going to be an explosion.
"Hutcheson ran from the room through the lounge and outside where the other occupants got some curtains to smother the flames," Mr Tabb said.
He was taken to another address where he decided to tell police he had been injured siphoning petrol, but another occupant told firefighters there was a methamphetamine laboratory in the house.
Firefighters saw the drum of tolulene expanding and contracting in the heat and got clear.
Police say the medical bill for Hutcheson was $1 million and the fire caused $133,000 damage to the rented house.
Hutcheson admitted selling ecstasy and LSD to an undercover constable, arson, and the methamphetamine charges.
Defence counsel Tony Garrett said there was no suggestion the methamphetamine was being produced commercially.
Judge Graeme Noble remanded Hutcheson in custody for a probation report and sentencing in the High Court on December 13.
- NZPA
