LEWISTON – A pair of brothers charged with torching several Lisbon Street buildings in December were indicted Wednesday by an Androscoggin County grand jury.

Timothy Giggey, 27, of 104 Third St. in Auburn and Douglas Hersom, 26, of 46 Knox St., Lewiston were each charged with arson and burglary.

Both men have been jailed since the Dec. 19 blaze that burned a cluster buildings near the intersection Ash and Lisbon streets, and disrupted the downtown area for weeks.

A 17-year-old Lewiston teen, Troy Littlefield, faces the same charges in connection with the blaze. His case is being handled through the juvenile court system because of his age, according to District Attorney Norm Croteau.

Police said the trio set the fire to create a diversion after breaking into a Lisbon Street building to steal copper. The three feared they had set off a burglar alarm in that building and allegedly set the fires in a building that formerly housed Marco’s Restaurant, as a diversion, according to an affidavit.

Police and fire investigators believe the trio also broke into the Cressey building – sandwiched between two other buildings that also burned – and set several other fires, according to Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. A fourth building was also damaged and all eventually had to be demolished..

State and local investigators arrested the suspects after questioning the three and interviewing witnesses, some of whom said they saw three people fleeing from the back of one of the buildings shortly after the fire was called in.

Police said Giggey and Hersom are no strangers to criminal trouble.

Giggey has nine convictions, including two felonies; Hersom 11 convictions, five of them felonies. Both have convictions for burglary and burglary of a motor vehicle. Giggey’s other convictions include criminal mischief and violation of protection from harassment order. Hersom’s convictions include two counts of forgery and habitual motor vehicle offender, a felony.

Federal, state and local fire officials, including three from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and six from the State Fire Marshal’s Office, teamed up to investigate the fire. Federal officials assisted because of the magnitude of the fire, McCausland said.

The indictments handed up Tuesday pave the way for prosecutors to present their cases against the suspects at trial.