For a good hour Wednesday morning, a Macon-Bibb County arson investigator canvassed the neighborhood around Ell and Second streets.
Sgt. Steve Wesson was hoping to catch a persistent fire bug in the act, but no luck.
Just as he got back in the office at about 9:35 a.m., the fire alarm sounded again.
"It's like cat and mouse," a frustrated Wesson said as firefighters were mopping up the latest deliberately set blaze in a vacant house. "I will get him," he vowed. After a spate of deliberately set fires within about a mile and a half in recent months, it appears an arsonist is turning up the heat.