Shipyard Employee Charged in USS Miami Fire

An arrest has been made in connection with the , a court official confirmed Monday morning.

Casey James Fury, 24, of Portsmouth, has been charged with two counts of "willfully and maliciously setting fire to" the USS Miami and building materials and supplies located in and around the nuclear submarine. The charges stem from the May 23 fire aboard the submarine and in the dry dock where the USS Miami rests. Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Clark confirmed that Fury was a civilian employee working as a painter and sandblaster aboard the USS Miami.

A shipyard spokesman would not say how long Fury has worked there. According to Fury's MySpace page, he attended Portsmouth High School from 2002 to 2006.

If convicted of either of the two charges, Fury faces life imprisonment, a fine not to exceed $250,000 and restitution.

He is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Portland, Maine at 3:45 p.m. Monday to hear the charges and be advised of his rights. The court official said it's possible that bail will be set at this afternoon's hearing, but it's too soon to say.

Seven people were injured in the May 23 fire, which caused $400 million in damage to the submarine and took more than 10 hours to extinguish.

by Jeremy Gauthier, a special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, says the cause of the May 23 fire remains under investigation, but that the June 16 fire is believed to have been started using isopropanol (alcohol) wipes.

The complaint says Fury was working aboard the Miami at the time of the first fire, and was working in the dry dock beneath the submarine at the time of the second fire.

According to the criminal complaint, in an interview with Gauthier on July 18, Fury admitted setting the June 16 fire. Fury told the investigator that after a text conversation with his ex-girlfriend, he became anxious and wanted to leave work.

Fury saw a bag containing the isopropanol wipes and set them on fire with a lighter, the report states. But at this point, he continued to deny any involvement with the May 23 fire.

He then agreed to submit to a polygraph examination about the May 23 fire, during which he admitted setting fire to a pile of rags atop a bunk with his Bic lighter. He claimed that he initially denied any involvement with the fire "because he was scared and because everything was blurry to him and his memory was impaired due to his anxiety and the medications he was taking" for anxiety, depression, sleep and allergies. Fury later demonstrated to investigators exactly how he set the fire.

The investigation is being conducted by NCIS, with assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.