Yellowknife (Mar 14/03) - Convicted arsonist Seth Rowe and another inmate hatched a plan to bust out of jail last month. They didn't get very far.

The two inmates apparently wanted to escape because they were in trouble for violating prison rules at Alberta's Grande Cache Institution. They feared being transferred from a minimum to medium security prison.

A medium security prison is where they are now, said Robert Boyd, assistant warden at Grande Cache, although he wouldn't reveal where.

On March 6, the pair pleaded guilty to prison breach at provincial court in Grande Cache. In addition to being transferred, both were sentenced to 45 more days behind bars.

The escape attempt took place on Valentine's Day, just two months after Rowe professed extreme remorse for setting the September 2002 cabin fire that left two Yellowknife teens badly burned.

The escapers managed to climb over one of two fences surrounding Grande Cache, a minimum security prison. They placed their prison parkas and blankets over the razer wire on the fence.

They couldn't make it over the second fence and became trapped between the fences for two hours in -20 C weather -- wearing only light prison uniforms.

The pair considered climbing back over the first fence but hiding the escape attempt was useless.

"Their coats caught in the wire had their names on them," said Const. Mark Harrison of the Grande Cache RCMP detachment.

When finally recaptured, they were relieved. "It was cold that day," explained Boyd.

He didn't know if it was Rowe who instigated the prison break.

"They didn't really divulge whose idea it was," said Boyd. "They were kind of blaming each other."

Rowe was sentenced to three years last December for arson causing bodily harm.