Thursday evening blaze in Rockwood makes 5 suspicious fires in 14 hours

A vacant pool house in Rockwood caught fire last night, making it the fifth suspicious property fire in four different locations in Wellington county since about 6:00 a.m. Thursday morning. 

The pool house was a former stable on a historic property at 143 Main Street S., according to a County of Wellington OPP news release. 

There was no one at home at the time, said OPP, but a witness has told police they saw two males break into the gated grounds around 8:00 p.m. Thursday night. Twenty minutes later, the pool house was visibly on fire and the witness called 911. 

Earlier that morning four other suspicious fires were reported within about 15 kilometers of the Rockwood fire. Due to the proximity and timing of those fires, police are looking into the possibility that the four may be connected. 

On the map below, the newest fires are indicated in red. Older fires are marked in orange.

The CBC has also learned one of those locations has now been twice hit by fire since a series of abandoned or vacant property fires began in September, 2016. 

"The address at 3rd line in Guelph-Eramosa Township, this is the second abandoned building at that address to have a suspicious fire since October," Const. Joshua Cunningham told CBC K-W. 

Cunningham said police are now asking anyone living in the area with hunting cameras, surveillance cameras or dash cameras to check their footage from the last day. 

"If they don't mind looking over their footage and seeing if something stands out — whether it's suspicious person, suspicious vehicle or suspicious activity."

"Maybe we could links something," said Cunningham.