The man responsible for burning down a CN trestle bridge near Mayerthorpe has been sentenced to 24 months in jail, followed by three years probation. 20 year old Lawson Schalm had plead guilty to four of his 18 counts of arson, stemming from a string of fires set over 12 days in April and May 2016.
According to the CBC, the judge in his case gave him 18 months for the bridge fire, and another six for several other fires before and after it. He was given three months credit for time served, leaving him with 21 months left in his sentence.
Schalm is the son of former Mayerthorpe mayor Albert Schalm and was a volunteer firefighter at the time. Experts found that he wasn’t a pyromaniac, but had been setting the fires for the excitement of responding to them with the fire department. He set four in one day just three days after the trestle fire.
CN Rail reportedly lost $7.6 million dollars in missed service and rebuilding the trestle. An abandoned farm house was also destroyed several days before the bridge.
