Employee charged with arson for ME submarine fire

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Navy investigators say a civilian employee working as a painter and sandblaster aboard a submarine at a Maine shipyard has been charged with setting a fire that heavily damaged the vessel in May, and a second near it in June.

In a complaint filed Monday in federal court in Maine, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service says 24-year-old Casey James Fury has been charged with two counts of arson involving the USS Miami.

The submarine has been in dry dock for an overhaul at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery. Court documents say Fury was assigned to do paint stripping in the torpedo room. He first denied involvement in the fires, then later admitted involvement.

Fury was scheduled for a court appearance Monday.

Estimates put the damage at $400 million.