The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 4 letter word RICE CAKE
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
R
I
C
E
C
A
K
E
Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "light fuel" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case light fuel = rice cake.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.