SEVERNA PARK, Md. — When investigators entered the vacant house on Belhaven Court in Severna Park following a fire a few weeks ago, they immediately suspected it was no accident.
“They immediately observed multiple fires set throughout the house, which indicated to them it was an arson and, thus, a crime and started the investigation,” said Anne Arundel County Fire Capt. Jenny Jones Macallair.
Through footage from various surveillance cameras, police determined 59-year-old Aaron Keel was their suspect.
Keel is pictured online as the principal of an environmental planning company sharing the same address as his home just a block away from the fire scene.
Images of Keel and his truck place him along the wood-line behind the house and then disposing of items in a dumpster at nearby Oak Hill Elementary School in the wee hours of the morning on the night in question.
Investigators later learned that two days before the fire, Keel had visited a number of home improvement stores and had only purchased a gasoline can and a pump sprayer.
Man arrested in connection with Severna Park fire
Court documents suggest Keel and the owners of the targeted house, which was under renovation at the time, had a history of disputes tied to the neighborhood home owners association and Keel had unsuccessfully tried to sue them for defamation in the past.
“They were neighbors and obviously had interacted throughout the neighborhood,” said Macallair, “What led this individual to take multiple steps to break into the home and start the home on fire, a home that did not belong to him, is pretty devastating and frightening really. I mean he put the public at risk that day and he also put our firefighters at risk.”
While no one was living in the house at the time of the fire, one firefighter was injured while extinguishing the flames.
