Robert Walker expressed relief Sunday night at the weekend arrest of a South Paris man in connection with the blaze that destroyed his home more than three years ago.

“It’s a big relief. It’s bothered me for three years now,” Walker said from his nursing home. “I lost a lot on that deal. I lost my NASCAR collection, all my family memorabilia. There’s nothing left.”

Robert G. Conrad, of 6 Western Ave., South Paris, was arrested Friday night at the Oxford home belonging to his parents, according to a statement released Sunday by Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. The 34-year-old man was charged with arson in connection to the March 2007 fire that destroyed Walker’s small, ranch-style home in Norway.

The beloved former Norway selectman and former track announcer at Oxford Plains Speedway said that he knew Conrad and was surprised by the arrest. Walker said that Conrad dated his daughter for a year, but that the two had broken up long before the fire.

The fire destroyed Walker’s house at 303 Country Club Road. The house was never rebuilt, and Walker now resides in a Norway apartment.

It is believed an accelerant was used to help fuel the blaze. At the time, investigators were also taking a closer look at a string of four other fires in the Oxford Hills area that happened around the same time.

According to McCausland’s statement, Conrad works as a maintenance man. An officer at the Oxford County Jail said Sunday night that Conrad remained there, and that his bail was set at $50,000 cash. Conrad is expected to make his first court appearance Monday.

McCausland reported that a team of nine investigators from the state Fire Marshal’s Office worked with the Oxford Police Department when new information developed in the three-year-old case. Investigators began the day Friday with another arson case involving a fire that was set on an outside deck of a single-family home on Jenny Lane in Oxford.

As the recent fire was being investigated, new information arose involving Walker’s three-year-old arson case. Search warrants were later served during the day at two undisclosed locations. Conrad was arrested, but the Friday fire in Oxford remains under investigation.