By Matt Gryta
The Buffalo News
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Jonathan R. Safe, a former West Seneca volunteer firefighter, was sent to prison Tuesday for setting fire to two vacant Buffalo houses last spring, but his pregnant ambulance crew partner was spared a prison term for her role in one of the arsons.
Safe, 20, was sentenced to one to three years in state prison by State Supreme Court Justice Penny M. Wolfgang on his Dec. 9 plea to felony arson and attempted arson.
A tearful Lyndsey Sgro, 22, was placed on probation for five years on her plea to felony attempted arson. She is due to give birth later this month.
The two worked on the same Rural/Metro ambulance crew when vacant houses were torched.
Safe pleaded guilty for the late-night fire last May 3 that caused $9,000 damage to a vacant seven-story apartment building on Glenny Drive and the early-morning $45,000 fire that leveled a vacant house on Howard Street last May 12.
Both fires were started by igniting combustibles with cigarette lighters, according to police reports.
Safe, who comes from a family of volunteer firefighters, told the judge he “wasn’t thinking clearly” during the two on-duty arsons.
“I’m really truly sorry for my actions,” he said.
Sgro also expressed remorse for taking part in the May 3 arson, for which she said “there was no reason.”
Law enforcement officials have said Safe and Sgro wanted to appear heroic by alerting neighbors to the fires.
The judge ordered both to submit to DNA testing for the state’s permanent registry of criminals and rebuked both for placing the lives of first responders and the public in danger with the arsons. Wolfgang could have sent Safe to prison for up to 15 years and Sgro for up to seven years.
Prosecutor Mary Beth DePasquale said an investigation confirmed that Sgro “did not have any personal involvement” in the Howard Street arson. Wolfgang ordered Sgro to find a job and perform 150 hours of community service during her five years on probation.
Both Safe, of Iris Avenue, and Sgro, of the Edgebrook Estates in Cheektowaga, had been free on bail until Tuesday. Sgro declined to comment as she left court with relatives.
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