S.C. Firefighter Sentenced for Five Arsons

A former South Carolina firefighter has been sentenced to five years in prison for setting a series of fires that caused about $1.5 million in damage.

The Island Packet of Hilton Head reported that 24-year-old Bryan Yeager of Beaufort pleaded no contest to arson and other charges in court in Beaufort on Monday.

Yeager was accused of setting fires in 2007 and 2008 while he was a firefighter with the Lady’s Island-St. Helena Fire District. He had been charged with setting five fires and could have been sentenced to 27 years in prison if he had been convicted on all charges.

Yeager also worked part-time as a security guard. He got caught in the arsons because the GPS system in his security vehicle recorded him at the scene of all the fires, at the time they occured.

Prosecutors say Yeager confessed to setting the fires in statements to Bluffton police and pleaded no contest the day before his trial was to begin.