Man sentenced for starting fire while he was a firefighter
URBANA — A Paxton man who admitted setting fire to a vacant home when he was a volunteer firefighter has been sentenced to 60 days in jail.
Andrew Bryant, 21, pleaded guilty before Judge Harry Clem Wednesday to arson, admitting that on May 7 he set fire to a home on County Road 1900 E about a mile east of Ludlow. The house was vacant, Assistant State’s Attorney Lindsey Clark said.
Bryant also was sentenced to four years of probation and ordered to make restitution of $2,869.
Clark said Champaign County sheriff’s investigators learned that Bryant had been in a bar the evening before and told a fellow firefighter with the Ludlow fire department that he wished they would get called to a fire.
Bryant was the one who called the fire in. When questioned by sheriff’s investigators, he made inconsistent statements, Clark said.
She said he eventually admitted that he used a cigarette lighter to set fire to a blanket that he’d found on the back porch of the home. He made sure that the fire took off before he left to go home and wait for the alarm.
The house had been vacant for more than a year because its owner is in a nursing home.
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