More than 30 firefighters were mobilized as four suspicious fires broke out in Wellington County within the span of a little over an hour Thursday morning.
All four fires occurred in an area north of Rockwood and southeast of Belwood, roughly straddling the border of Guelph/Eramosa and the Town of Erin.
The first call came in around 5:40 a.m. It brought firefighters to a shed on Side Road 27 in Erin.
About 30 minutes later, crews were dispatched to a property on Side Road 15 in Guelph/Eramosa.
“We found a fire in an abandoned house, and a fire in an abandoned barn,” Guelph/Eramosa fire chief John Osborne told reporters.
About 40 minutes after that, firefighters were notified of yet another fire – this one in a shed on the Third Line in Guelph/Eramosa.
All of the fires had been called in by people passing by the properties who noticed smoke or flames. All of them were knocked down in short order. No injuries were reported.
Police say all the fires are suspicious, although they’re still working to prove conclusively whether they are linked.
Since September 2016, there have been more than 20 suspicious fires in and around Wellington County, primarily in the Guelph/Eramosa and Puslinch areas. Most of the fires have been set at abandoned buildings.
Police say catching whoever is behind the fires is made more difficult by the isolated, rural nature of where they are happening – meaning witnesses and surveillance video can be difficult to come by.
“It’s tough to eliminate the isolation,” OPP Const. Joshua Cunningham told reporters Thursday.
Cunningham emphasized that anyone seeing anything that might be suspicious should report the activity to police.
“So many people hesitate to call the police – they feel like they’re wasting our time – but a lot of help would come from calls from the public,” he said.
In addition to the danger from the fires themselves, Osborne says whoever is setting the fires is creating a secondary public safety concern.
The fire chief says he’s concerned about drivers pulling over onto unpaved shoulders to let emergency vehicles through – something he’s glad they’re doing, but also something that creates the potential for danger.
“That’s putting the public at risk,” Osborne said.
With reporting by Marta Czurylowicz and Max Wark
