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OPP believes multiple overnight fires in Norfolk County suspicious

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Ontario provincial police believe several fires at multiple buildings in Norfolk County late Tuesday into Wednesday morning to be suspicious.

The Norfolk County division of police attended to five fires that happened in the across three locations in the area of of Windham East Quarter Line and Windham Road 13.

At around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday officers were called to a fire on Windham East Quarter Line where two vacant structures on a rural farm property were engulfed in flames.

Just after 1 a.m. into Wednesday police were called to reports that a fire broke out on Windham Road 13 at two more vacant structures on a rural farm.

OPP told CHCH News that certain indicators have led investigators to determine the fires on Windham East Quarter Line and Windham Road 13 to be suspicious.

The Office of the Fire Marshall is not attending either scene. Damage estimates for the rural fires are still undetermined.

A few hours later, investigators reported to a fire at an apartment on Norfolk Street at 3 a.m. in downtown Simcoe.

The building was occupied at the time and first responders say the resident was able to escape safely. Firefighters also rescued a cat from the scene.

This fire remains under investigation, with an estimated damage cost of $50,000.

Police closed the roads surrounding the fires for several hours, but have since reopened.

The fires resulted in two firefighters to suffer non-life threatening injuries, but no one else was reported to have been injured.

Detectives say the investigation is in the early stages but are focused on understanding if the incidents are isolated or potentially related.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police.

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