A rash of arsons and suspicious fires in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality is taxing officials and creating an ever-growing backlog of fire inspections.

There have been more than 80 arsons in the region this year. The last two weeks alone have seen 16 suspicious fires.

Deputy fire marshal Vince Penny said his office has been involved with so many arsons that its fire inspections for nursing homes and hospitals, as well as other duties, aren't getting done.

"We are backlogged, in some cases, 60 days, 90 days," he said. "We are trying our best to catch up. We only have a limited amount of manpower. Unfortunately, with these amount of fires we do get backlogged and there is not much we can do about it."

The Cape Breton Regional Police force has a special unit of 10 officers to investigate the latest fires. The unit will operate for a month, then it will be reviewed.

Ron French said something has to be done soon. Firefighters had to spray his girlfriend's Sydney home with water when the house next door went up in flames. Her mother was inside.

"It's kind of scary. You don't know if someone is going to set one on fire when you're in the house or not," French said.