FREEPORT — Authorities arrested the man accused of setting a fire to a family plumbing business in Freeport just as he was getting onto a bus leaving for South Carolina this morning.
Danny Young, an investigator with the state Fire Marshal’s Office, arrested Christopher Veysey, 21, in Portland on a charge of arson and nine counts of burglary.
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Fire investigators working with Freeport police interviewed witnesses throughout the night and developed Veysey as a suspect, said Sgt. Joel Davis, of the state Fire Marshal’s Office.
Veysey broke into nine vehicles in the business’s parking lot and set fire to four of them, said Steve McCauusland, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety. The fire then spread to the building.
Veysey apparently set fire to the contents of the work trucks to cover up the crime, Davis said.
Veysey is being held in the Cumberland County Jail. He is also suspected in burglaries in Guilford on Monday about 100 miles north of Freeport,
11:35 a.m.
FREEPORT — Freeport police have charged a man with arson in connection with the fire that destroyed Bob Miles & Son, a plumbing and heating business on Route 1. Police did not immediately disclose the arson suspect’s name.
We will report further details as they become available.
11:07 a.m.
FREEPORT — The fire that destroyed a Route 1 business in Freeport overnight started around some vehicles parked behind the business, Fire Chief Darrel Fournier said this morning.
The fire, which broke out at 11 p.m. Monday at Bob Miles & Son at 1162 Route 1, did about $700,000 in damage and is considered suspicious, Fournier said.
A neighbor spotted the flames and when firefighters arrived it had engulfed two vans used by the plumbing and heating business and a personal vehicle and had spread to the roof of the 100- by 50-foot building north of the downtown.
Fire officials struck a second alarm, summoning help from Brunswick, Yarmouth Pownal and Topsham.
“When we got there, there was heavy fire in the rear of the building extending up to the attic area,” Fournier said.
Nobody was hurt but the building, which does not have sprinklers, was destroyed, as were the plumbing and heating supplies inside and an office at the front of the building, Fournier said.
The state Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause of the fire. Fournier would not say why investigators believe it is suspicious.
This morning, workers and family members were pulling computers and other equipment out of the building, trying to salvage what they could while firefighters worked to douse hot spots to keep the flames from rekindling.
9:03 a.m.
FREEPORT — Fire badly damaged a business on Route 1 in Freeport and investigators are now on the scene trying to determine how it started.
The fire broke out at about 11 p.m. at Bob Miles & Son at 1162 Route 1, which does heating, plumbing, electrical and carpentry work, according to its website. Fire officials struck a second alarm. Firefighters extinguished the fire but were still overhauling it at 4 a.m., authorities said.
Nobody was injured.
Assistant State Fire Marshal Joe Thomas said the blaze is under investigation.
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