Angry Volunteer Firefighters Sound Off At Arson Sentencing Of Financially Strapped Homeowner Seeking Quick Cash

In Windsor, Ontario, The Windsor Star reports that 28-year-old William Donald Rushlow was sentenced in Ontario Superior Court Wednesday to a year in jail for torching his home to collect the insurance proceeds. According to the story, the evidence at trial showed that he paid off his delinquent insurance premium the day before he set fire to his house. Deeply in debt, Rushlow sought to walk off with $297,000 from the fire. In sentencing Rushlow, the judge claimed that she was greatly influenced by the victim impact statements filed by the volunteer firefighters called to put out the blaze:

• Many of the firefighters wrote that they felt a trust had been violated when they discovered that they had put their lives on the line, not in service to a fellow citizen in trouble, but to a man hoping to cash in on his insurance policy. Firefighter Cindy Feurth stated she felt "very afraid" as she risked her life to crawl on her stomach up a set of stairs to bring a water line into the flames. "It angers me now to know it was intentional," she said. "I do not appreciate putting my life at risk ... for someone else's financial gain."

Reportedly, he was convicted on five of the six arson and fraud-related charges after more than four weeks of trial in which he pleaded not guilty and defended himself without the help of a lawyer. The trial also revealed on three prior occasions, Rushlow filed successful insurance claims totalling almost $24,000 for fire losses to cars he owned. For more, see Lakeshore man who set fraudulent blaze sent to jail.

Editor's Note: Getting only a year in jail after forcing prosecutors to go to trial in a case resulting in convictions on five (presumably all felony) charges might go a long way not to deter, but to encourage, others in "arson for insurance cash" schemes.