Inmate gets six months for setting cell ablaze

Angered when jail staff came to check for contraband, a then-remand inmate set about flooding and setting fire to his cell — an incident that ultimately left several other remand inmates with smoke inhalation.

Nathan V. Ortynsky is now an inmate at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary, from where he appeared via video link at Regina provincial court on Tuesday. Ortynsky was initially facing two charges in relation to the Dec. 30 incident — mischief and arson — but the Crown agreed to stay the first when Ortynsky pleaded guilty to the second.

Crown prosecutor Lloyd Stang told the court Ortynsky had been awaiting sentence on a range of Yorkton charges and had been remanded at the Regina Provincial Correctional Centre when suspicion arose that he might have a weapon or other contraband in his cell.

When staff members went to check, Ortynsky argued with them. Court heard he then smashed the sprinkler head in his cell, causing water to pour out and flood the area. He then took the broken sections of the sprinkler and used them to damage the cell window, refusing to hand the pieces over to staff.

Stang said Ortynsky next exposed the light switch in his cell, using the wires inside to start a fire.

Crisis negotiators and the jail’s emergency response team were summoned to deal with the situation. Staff was able to extinguish the fire and restrain Ortynsky.

By then, smoke from the fire had spread far enough that other remand inmates were affected and had to be sent to the jail’s medical unit for treatment.

“That’s a pretty dangerous situation, starting a fire in a closed setting like that,” observed Stang, who asked for a six-month sentence to be served at the same time as a 10year term Ortynsky is currently serving for the unrelated Yorkton matters.

Judge Dennis Fenwick agreed to impose the suggested sentence, but advised Ortynsky “one could argue there should be more time” given the danger he created.