Navy: Worker set $400M Maine submarine fire to get out of work early

Smoke rises from a dry dock as fire crews respond Wednesday, May 23, 2012 to a fire on the USS Miami SSN 755 submarine at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on an island in Kittery, Maine. Four people were injured. / Ionna Raptis,AP Photo/The Herald

Updated 5:50 p.m. ET

(CBS/AP) PORTLAND, Maine - A civilian employee working as a painter and sandblaster allegedly set fire to the submarine at a Maine shipyard he was working on because he had anxiety and wanted to get out of work early, the Navy says. . The subsequent blaze created an estimated $400 million in damage to the vessel.

According to an affidavit, Casey James Fury admitted to setting one fire aboard the USS Miami attack submarine on May 23 and a second one outside the submarine on June 16, Navy investigators said in a complaint filed Monday.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service said 24-year-old Fury has been charged with two counts of arson involving the USS Miami, according to the complaint filed in federal court in Maine. Investigators said Fury told them his anxiety caused him to set the fires. He was on multiple medications for anxiety and depression, according to the criminal complaint.

Fury faces life imprisonment, a fine not to exceed $250,000 and restitution if he is found guilty of either charge, according to CBS News affiliate WGME 13.

The submarine was in dry dock for an overhaul at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery. Court documents say Fury was assigned to strip paint in the torpedo room. He first denied involvement in the fires, then later acknowledged his involvement in the major fire when it was clear he was failing a polygraph examination, federal investigators say.

U.S. Rep.: Early estimate is $400M to repair sub

Fury, from Portsmouth, N.H., appeared in U.S. District Court in Portland on Monday but did not enter a plee.

People who appeared to be family members attended the hearing but declined to comment. His federal public defender, David Beneman, did not speak in court and earlier in the day also declined to comment to the Associated Press. He agreed to take the polygraph examination July 20 without a lawyer present.

He told investigators he became anxious after texting a former girlfriend about the man she was seeing and wanted to leave work, according to the complaint. He told federal investigators his anxiety also prompted him to set the May 23 fire in a state room of the submarine. He told investigators he set fire to a bag of rags atop one of the bunks. It took 12 hours to extinguish the fire.

[WoodenU]

"All War is based on lies."
-Sun Tzu, The Art of War.

[nohater]

on meds for anxiety and depression, the meds made him do it. he will get a free pass and he will beat the legal and justice system. he will not get life in prison nor have to pay the 250k fine, seriously doubt it.

[Resin-Smoker]

That has too be one fine piece of A$$ to set fire to a Navy sub.

[krups22]

Spell check? *plea

[riteousone]

Would not he be subject to the military code of justice? Intentional damage is called sabotage. In war time (and we are still at war in Afghanistan) it is punishable by death. Girl fried or no girl friend!

[Bush-cheney-R-Terrorists]

He is probably going to be experiencing some more anxiety in jail as a young fresh 24 year old. That anxiety will soon pass as it turns to sheer terror over the next 70 years in jail.

[vernique3]

If he lives for 50 more years and works seven days a week, he will only owe $21,917 dollars a day. Maybe he could become a industrial/military contractor to generate that kind of income.

[raymailhot]

Leave the dream world, most would just like it if he would go to jail.

[rwsmith29456]

Restitution? The taxpayers will make restitution for his idiotic acts.

[RichZubaty]

Sounds like my kinda guy. Let's set him up with some air craft carrier work. And when he's done there let's get him a job in the basement of the Pentagon. Demolishing the Military/Industrial/Congressional establishment just got a whole lot easier. I'm amazed I didn't think of it myself.

[Mac166688]

The Iranians would like to contact you. So would al Qaeda, not to mention the FBI, but not for the same reasons.

[Jim1900]

I wonder if government contractors are prevented from screening out employees that are on various medications because of pressure from various interest groups. It wouldn't surprise me.

[John782011]

He was probably not a government contractor, but instead a government employee as the base is a government shipyard/

[gbgentleman]

John, there are MANY government contractors in comparison to government workers on government facilities. I had a friend who worked for the government in IT. In one assignment he worked with five other people. Of those five, three of them were contractors. Now he works in a different facility where there are six government workers and SIXTEEN contractors.