A North Carolina man accidentally set his house on fire while trying to remove a wasp nest.

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The Greensboro Fire Department reports Hugh Williams first tried to get rid of a wasp nest in the ground next to his home by pouring insecticide into it, The Greensboro News-Record reported Monday.

When that didn't work, Fire Marshall David Douglas says Williams placed a paper bag inside the nest and set it on fire.

The flames shot out of the ground and up an outside wall of Williams' house right into the attic, the newspaper reports.

It took firefighters 30 minutes to extinguish the blaze which caused $80,000 damage and left the house uninhabitable.