Pennsylvania Firefighter Gets Jail For Arson

A volunteer firefighter was sentenced Monday to spend at least 22 months in state prison and was ordered to pay about $300,000 in restitution for setting five fires in just over a month. According to court documents, William Barnhart, 21, told police at the time of his arrest that he set fires for the thrill of responding to them as a member of the Goodwill Hose Company in Sunbury.

Barnhart was among the firefighters who responded to those fires, according to court documents.

Northumberland County Judge William H. Wiest sentenced Barnhart, formerly of 113 Memorial Acres, Sunbury, to 22 months up to 6 years in state prison for arson endangering a person. The judge also sentenced Barnhart to four concurrent prison sentences for charges of risking a catastrophe, arson that endangered property and two counts of recklessly burning.

He was arrested in connection with five fires including three trash bin fires outside Runnerless Knits and Stitches Inc., both in Sunbury, as well as two fires at a 446 Race St., Sunbury, home.

The March 21, 2003, fire in the trash bin outside Stitches spread to the building but the building