Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

More Mystery Fires, this time affecting a whole town, rather than one residence.  The Glasgow “Daily Record,” October 16, 1933:

Crieff police are puzzled as to the cause of the remarkable series of fires which have occurred this weekend. 

Between Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon three outbreaks were reported to the police.

These outbreaks have occurred in a thickly populated area behind a narrow lane called Academy Road. 

Late on Saturday night a fire was discovered in a cellar below a dwelling-house in that area very near to a building which was destroyed by fire on Wednesday night. The alarm was raised by a neighbour who burst open the door. He was successful in extinguishing the blaze.

On Sunday afternoon in the same area an outbreak was discovered in a store belonging to Messrs. Harley and Watts Ltd., chemists. Huge volumes of smoke were observed pouring from the store in which large quantities of straw and packing material are kept. Mr. Alex Love, garage manager of Messrs. Duff and Son, motor hirers, broke down the door and with a fire extinguisher and a small hose prevented the flames from spreading to the large warehouse of Messrs. Fraser (Perth) Ltd. 

Later in the afternoon, the police were again called to deal with an outbreak of fire in a dwelling-house in Hill Street, which they managed to extinguish without summoning the fire brigade. There have been five outbreaks of fire in Crieff within a week.

Various buildings in and around Crieff continued to be plagued by these inexplicable blazes until at least the end of the year, when, as far as I can tell, they finally petered out.  I could not find any indication that the cause of these fires--whether it was a mad arsonist or something more Fortean--was ever discovered.