Serial arsonist gets more jail time, community ban

BRANDON — A serial arsonist who believes controlled burning is his “calling” was sentenced to nine months in jail and barred for two years from a southwestern Manitoba community after he deliberately set multiple grass fires during a fire ban in May.

Phillip Andrew Unrau, 72, created a dangerous situation for residents of Margaret and a nearby Hutterite colony on the evening of May 21 when he set fire to several patches of grass along a railway bed, provincial court Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta said on Wednesday.

People in the community, located 45 kilometres southeast of Brandon, called the fire department. While no residents saw Unrau light the fires, he made incriminating comments to witnesses and was found alone near the burning land that stretched for 274 metres, the judge said.

“The damage to property here was minimal, but the emotional and psychological harm that Mr. Unrau causes to his neighbours is significant,” she said.

“They are understandably anxious that Mr. Unrau will damage their property, homes, town, or worse. The risk to emergency responders and others forced into action when Mr. Unrau lights fires is noteworthy as well.”

Unrau had been warned by the fire chief that a ban was in place and he failed to recognize the harm he has caused, she said.

“Mr. Unrau had no authorization, equipment, water supply or manpower necessary to safely conduct a controlled burn, and the fire posed a risk to nearby land, property and the community,” Hewitt-Michta said.

Unrau has been in custody at the Brandon Correctional Centre since his arrest on May 22. He has multiple convictions for arson that stretch back two decades.

He was fined $1,500 under the Manitoba Wildfires Act in 2025 and $240 in 2003 and 2004, and received an 81-day jail sentence for arson that same year.

In October 2009, he was sentenced to five months in jail on two counts of arson for fires he had set in Margaret in April 2008. One fire burned near the community’s wood-framed arena and a propane tank.

He was convicted of arson in January 2016 while he was on supervised probation for starting a grass fire south of the Margaret cemetery in August 2013.

In this incident, he was found with a jerry can and a lighter. A note in his vehicle stated, “Start Burning! Or God will.”

Unrau’s criminal record includes uttering threats to burn down Boissevain School, obstructing and assaulting police officers, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and flight from police.

In a pre-sentence report, he rationalized his actions by emphasizing no one had been injured and he denied having caused damage, noting there is no mention of arson in the Bible.

“Mr. Unrau has a long-standing propensity to filter his perceptions of events and circumstances through a worldview shaped by conspiracy theories and unconventional ideologies,” Hewitt-Michta said.

An earlier psychological assessment found Unrau likely has a personality disorder.

A building inspector recently went to his home in Margaret and cited hazard concerns about a makeshift chimney and a lack of egress options for emergency crews in the event of a fire.

Unrau relies on incendiary devices and the chimney for heating after he discontinued Manitoba Hydro services following a disagreement years ago, Hewitt-Michta said.

While Unrau argued with the judge about his wish to return to his community, Hewitt-Michta sentenced him to spend 56 more days in custody, accounting for enhanced credit for time served, along with a two-year ban from Margaret.

“It’s not safe for the other residents of the community to have you living there. I don’t make that order lightly,” the judge said.

Unrau also received a 60-day sentence for an offence under the Manitoba Wildfires Act, to be served concurrently.

— Brandon Sun