Man who started fire in hotel full of wildfire evacuees gets two years

A man who started a fire at a Kamloops hotel filled with wildfire evacuees in the summer of 2017 has been given a two-year jail sentence.

According to a provincial court sentencing decision posted online, Shane Dennis was staying at the Sandman Inn and Suites Hotel with his grandmother and other families members who had been forced from their home in Williams Lake in July 2017 when the arson took place.

The hotel was busy with people who had been forced to flee the fires during one of B.C.’s worst wildfire seasons on record.

Fresh from completing parole from a prior sexual assault conviction, Dennis had been drinking alcohol and taking drugs when he declared he was “not meant for the outside world and wanted to return to the penitentiary,” said the decision.

A family member called police after he broke a window and “trashed” his hotel room. He left the room and dropped to his knees, exclaiming “arrest me.”

Moments later, smoke began to drift from the hotel room where Dennis had set fire to his grandmother’s suitcase, causing the hotel’s sprinkler system to activate.

According to the court decision, there was three inches of water in the hotel hallway, resulting in a cleanup and repair estimate of about $20,000.

Dennis’s background and difficult childhood were taken into account during the sentencing hearing in Kamloops in October. A psychologist quoted in the decision noted the fire evacuation “would be stressful and taxing for any individual,” adding the offence seemed to be committed “out of anger as opposed to wanting to physically harm or injure another person by carrying out the act of arson.”

Dennis pleaded guilty to the arson charge. He was given a twoyear jail sentence, less time served, leaving 49 days of incarceration.