(Urbana) -- A small town volunteer firefighter will now spend two months in jail for starting a fire so he could later return and put it out.

Andrew Bryant was a volunteer firefighter in his home town of Paxton Illinois.

He first denied having anything to do with the blaze at an empty house in Champaign County back in May.

But investigators say the woman who lived there had been sent to a nursing home, and no one was anywhere near.

Bryant was the first to report the fire.

He later copped a plea to setting the fire.

Bryant will now spend the next two months in county jail in Champaign.

He's also going to have to pay for the 28-hundred dollars damage he caused to the home.

No word if his sentence includes a ban on any future firefighting jobs.

　

(Copyright 2009 by VERTEXNews/Newsroom Solutions)