Arthur “Art” Burke pled guilty to causing arson by negligence

A former cast member of hit reality TV show Ice Road Truckers will be sentenced on Friday in connection to an explosion caused by a homemade batch of cannabis shatter, CBC News reports.

Earlier this year, Arthur “Art” Burke pleaded guilty to causing arson by negligence after admitting to trying to create cannabis concentrate in the bathroom of an apartment in Yellowknife last November. 

Creating shatter requires the combination of plant materials and solvents and uses a large amount of butane, a flammable liquid that converts to gas at room temperature. A powerful explosion was caused once the butane ignited, blowing the bathroom door off its hinges and causing over $60,000 in damage to the building. 

Burke suffered burns to 40 per cent of his body as a result of the fire caused by the explosion.

The Crown prosecutor and Burke’s lawyer initially campaigned for a sentence of 18 months of house arrest during an earlier hearing, but were denied when the judge reused their suggestions of allowing the trucker to serve a portion of his sentence in the cab of his truck while he worked, asking for further justification for the unusual sentence adjustment.