Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
An Australian firefighter who was convicted of setting a wildland fire and calling into two false alarms has had his one-year prison sentence reduced to a nine-month suspended sentence by an appellate court.
Jourdan Dean Ashford, 21, who served with the Bedfordale Bushfire Brigade as a volunteer, had been sentenced to one year in jail by Perth District Court Judge Richard Keen. Ashford admitted to setting a brush fire in 2014 and calling in two false alarms. Judge Keen considered his service as a volunteer firefighter to be an aggravating factor and sentenced him more harshly.
This week the Court of Appeals for Western Australia reversed Judge Keen, reducing Ashford’s sentence to nine-months and suspending the sentence. The ruling led to Ashford’s release from prison. More on the story.
