Crews snuff out hay bales on fire near Macklin, Sask., on July 30.Justin Bast/The Canadian Press
Saskatchewan Mounties have charged a man in a string of hay bale arsons in and around Macklin – and the Macklin fire department says the accused is one of their own.
“Our worst suspicions were confirmed,” Macklin Fire Chief Justin Bast said Wednesday in a statement posted to social media.
“It is with profound sadness that we report this (accused) individual was a member of the fire department.
“We deeply apologize to the public.”
Bast, in an interview, said the $26,500 reward for information leading to an arrest won’t be paid out as the case was solved internally.
He also said the accused was a volunteer firefighter and had been with them since 2016.
Mounties say the arrest came in an investigation into a string of hay bale fires over the month of August. The investigation included reviewing surveillance footage.
In an interview last week, before the arrest, Bast said they had responded to more than 20 such fires to hay bales, grass and crops in those weeks, which was equivalent to the same number of such fires they would normally get in an entire year.
“I’ve been on the department for 29 years and this is the first that we have had somebody doing this,” Bast said at the time.
“It’s been very hard on the department.
“It’s the summer, people are gone and schedules don’t always line up.”
Bast said the fires were random and far flung and the hope was to get the case solved before harvest season got into full swing.
He said farmers had been asked to round up their bales and take them home but said regardless of that measure the fires kept coming.
Macklin is 250 kilometres west of Saskatoon near the Alberta boundary.
Logan Sieben, 25, of Macklin is charged with arson causing mischief, arson with intent to defraud, and theft under $5,000.
RCMP declined to provide details on the charges of arson to defraud and theft under $5,000.
Sieben is scheduled to appear in provincial court in Unity, Sask., on Nov. 18.