A former Shumway volunteer firefighter was jailed last week after pleading guilty to setting fire to her house, according to The Effingham Daily News
Jennifer Baker will spend 180 days in Effingham County Jail under the terms of a plea agreement and also will be obligated to pay $13,000 in restitution to the village's fire department.
On Jan. 12, Baker set fire to the contents of a kitchen trash can at her home in an attempt to collect insurance money. No one else was in the house at the time of the fire, which she reported in a 911 call.
According to the report, the volunteers she used to serve alongside say no amount of money or jail time can repair the damage done to the department's reputation.
"It's hard enough to have an arson fire. It's even worse to have one of your own people do it," Battalion Chief Johnathon Paholke told the newspaper. "It's still stuck there in the public eye. This will be something that sticks with us for awhile."
As an additional term of the plea agreement, Baker will be required to register as an arsonist with the state of Illinois.
