FRYEBURG – A local man has been arrested in Michigan and charged with setting a fire that leveled the Fryeburg Academy gymnasium in October.
Philip Thibault, 20, of Fryeburg, was arrested in Flint, Mich., during the weekend and charged with arson, police said.
Thibault is accused of starting the blaze that destroyed the 50-year-old Harvey Dow Gibson Recreation Center and Gymnasium in the early morning hours Oct. 11. The fire leveled the building, and the school lost nearly all its athletic uniforms and equipment as well as a full-length basketball court.
Investigators have not said how they believe the fire was started. It took fire crews from four towns to battled the blaze, which was not completely extinguished for nearly 12 hours after it was first reported.
Few details about Thibault’s arrest were available Tuesday night. An official at the Flint Police Department did not know which agency arrested him.
Flint is a city of about 120,000 people in the west-central potion of Michigan.
Thibault was first taken to the Genesee County Jail in Flint to await extradition back to Maine. A jail official there said Tuesday night that Thibault had been moved to another correctional center, but it was not clear which one.
Thibault will likely be moved to the Cumberland County Jail in Portland to answer the federal arson charge. An official there said late Tuesday that Thibault was not listed as a current inmate.
At the Fryeburg Academy, athletic director Todd Gallagher said he had not heard that an arrest had been made in the case.
“This is news to me,” he said Tuesday night.
It was unknown if Thibault had been a student at Fryeburg Academy. Gallagher did not want to discuss the arrest before speaking with other school officials.
The fire at the academy gym left school officials scrambling to find a new place for its athletes to play and practice. School officials said they will raise funds themselves and discuss plans to build a new gymnasium.
“We really had to scramble for a while,” Gallagher said. “But a lot of people have been very generous to us.”
Some academy teams have been practicing at the Livestock Show Arena at the Fryeburg Fairgrounds, often using equipment donated from other schools.
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