A Mason City man is in custody after he was accused of setting five fires in less than two hours Tuesday morning.
Mason City Police arrested 39-year-old Zach Sankey after the Mason City Fire Department responded to numerous fires at businesses and private residences. Sankey faces multiple arson charges and at least one count of burglary.
The first fire call came in at 5:22 am Tuesday on South Kentucky Avenue followed by a brush fire near Birch Drive and North Rhode Island Avenue. At 6:25 am, Arona Home Essentials on 4th Street Southwest had a fire call before a burglary and fire was reported at Ace Hardware on South Illinois Avenue at 6:45 am. There, the front doors were broken and the store extensively damaged.
The final fire call at 7:15 am took firefighters to the community building at Gracious Estates, a mobile home park on Eisenhower Avenue.
MCFD and MCPD are asking for the public’s help with the investigation. If you live, work or travel through the areas of these fires and saw suspicious activity or have video recordings between 3:49 a.m. and 7:41 a.m. that may be useful to authorities, contact the Mason City Police Department Criminal Investigation Division at 641-421-3636.Â
