Firefighter's arson confession rocks B.C. town
Jenny Wagler, National Post
Published: Thursday, July 31, 2008
Oliver, B.C., is a tinderbox of a town perched above Canada's only pocket of desert. It's a town of vineyards, sage brush, parched grass and scorching 40C summers.
And five summers ago, as the region grappled with a fire storm that ripped through the Okanagan Valley, an arsonist struck in Oliver, and then struck again and again.
"You could almost put your clock to it," Mayor Ron Hovanes said. "We have an old air raid siren on the rooftop of the firehall. You could hear it go off every Sunday afternoon, and you knew."
On Thursday, a Penticton, B.C., provincial court sentenced Mike Hagel, 47, a one-time volunteer firefighter, to two years' house arrest followed by two years' probation. Hagel, who confessed to the arsons, must also pay $10,000 to fire chief Dave Janzen and $10,000 to Telus for equipment loss. It ends -- at least legally -- an arson saga that saw the town's fire chief of 30 years suspended under taint of suspicion, until Hagel's public confession exonerated him.
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What a twat.
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