Fire and police officials are looking at possible links between three recent fires at unoccupied houses in the southeast portion of Wellington County.
An Oct. 28 fire destroyed an unoccupied home on Arkell Road near Nassagaweya-Puslinch Townline, less than 10km from two similar fires in neighbouring Guelph-Eramosa on Oct. 14 and 19.
A passerby called in the latest fire just after 5:30am on Friday, explained Puslinch Fire Chief Steve Goode.
He told the Advertiser the house was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived.
“That’s a great indicator for us that something’s going on because it’s not a traditional house where it could be smoking materials that caused the fire, a pot on the stove or electrical,” Goode explained.
On Nov. 1 he went into more detail.
“The OPP are treating it as arson, all three fires,” Goode said. “There’s no other factors that play into this; there’s no hydro to the building, the environment as far as lightning goes didn’t exist, it’s not [inhabited], so the fact of the matter is somebody lit it.
“There’s no doubt in our minds, we just … don’t know what the device was that lit the fires and how the fires were lit.”
OPP Sergeant Jamie Gillespie confirmed arson is the likely cause of the Puslinch fire.
He added that until police and fire officials “get a more clear initial cause of the fire they won’t know for sure, but that’s the suspicion … that it’s going to be arson.”
The house on Arkell Road was under renovations at the time of the fire, but was unoccupied, Goode said.
About 25 firefighters from the Puslinch, Guelph-Eramosa and Guelph fire departments fought the blaze from outside the home.
The Arkell Road fire was the third suspicious fire at an unoccupied home in 15 days.
The other two took place on Oct. 14 and 19 less than 10km away, on the 3rd Line in Guelph-Eramosa Township.
“Certainly there are … some factors that are similar in nature as far as timing, the fact that … it was unoccupied,” Goode said.
“At this point there’s nothing that we can state that confirms they’re all linked together, but certainly the Ontario Provincial Police and the Ontario Fire Marshall’s office acknowledge … these fires in abandoned buildings, unoccupied buildings.”
Gillespie said police are also investigating all three blazes but are not yet sure if they are connected.
In all three cases fire departments used water shuttles, with a porta-tank set up at the end of the laneway. The Puslinch fire department used at least 20,000 gallons of water to fight the Oct. 28 fire, Goode said.
The damage estimate for the Arkell Road fire is $150,000.
Goode encouraged residents to remain vigilant.
“We want them to be aware that this is happening so that they’re concentrating and looking for suspicious behaviour,” he said. “That will certainly help us.”
Car fires
There were also two vehicle fires in Puslinch – the first on Oct. 30 and the second on Oct. 31 – that Goode said were definitively arson.
“Traditionally we look at a vehicle fire and it’s very hard to find the cause … many of them are found on the side of the road with the parts stripped off of them,” he said.
“These particular fires, nothing’s been taken off them, nothing at all … they’re just lighting it up. That’s not normal for our township and to be honest that’s not normal at all.”
The OPP, Puslinch Fire and Rescue Services and the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal are investigating all the fires. Anyone with information can contact the OPP at 1-888-310-1122 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or www.csgw.tips.
