Man sets fire to vet clinic over cat bill, fatally injuring pets, Oregon cops say
An Oregon man is facing charges — and two pets are dead — after police accused him of setting fire to an animal clinic in a dispute over a bill for his sick cat.
Eugene-Springfield firefighters responded to the active fire at Emergency Veterinary Hospital in Springfield just before 3 a.m. on Jan. 22, Springfield police said in a news release Thursday.
Firefighters quickly stopped the fire, but it had “burned through an electrical box on the back side of the building causing damage to the structure,” according to police, who added that the fire filled the animal hospital with smoke while 10 workers and several animals were inside.
Investigators determined that someone had used an accelerant to purposefully light the fire, and eventually they discovered that before the fire a man was asked to leave the 24-hour hospital because he was disruptive during a dispute over some billing that involved his cat.
Police had been called on the disruptive man — Mathew Wayne Rossi, 41, of Junction City — but he was gone by the time officers arrived, police said.
Surveillance camera footage from the hospital and nearby businesses showed Rossi coming back to the hospital later and then escaping around the time the fire began, according to police.
Rossi was arrested Thursday in Junction City on arson, criminal mischief and reckless endangerment charges, according to police.
“The investigation is continuing and more charges may be pending,” police said.
The Register-Guard reports that the “fire caused more than $1,000 in damage.”
Springfield police Sgt. Dave Lewis said a cat and dog were euthanized in part due to smoke inhalation from the blaze, according to the Register-Guard reports, which reports that Rossi “has a history of arson offenses dating back to the 1990s.”
KEZI reported that “Rossi was previously convicted of arson in Eugene in 2010.”
This story was originally published January 31, 2020 at 5:53 PM with the headline "Man sets fire to vet clinic over cat bill, fatally injuring pets, Oregon cops say."
