By Renee Worthing

Register Reporter

Officials determined the cause of the fire that destroyed the Air Tech building at Sanford Regional Airport March 15 was arson, Sanford Fire Department Capt. Brian Smith said.

When the roof of the building and layers of debris were removed March 20, evidence became apparent, he said.

   “It was intentionally set,” Smith said.

He said the building owner, Robert Curry was at the scene when fire officials told him the fire was arson.

“He was visibly shaken,” Smith said.

Curry and Dan Johnson, part owner of DM Technologies, housed in one of the units, were working at the building the morning of the fire.

Both men left the building at about 11 a.m., Smith said. The fire was reported a 1:30 p.m.

   Smith said officials are compiling a list of people they want to talk to.

  “We want to find out who has information,” Smith said. “Sometimes someone knows something important without realizing it.

The state fire marshal has been at the scene since the afternoon the fire broke out and members of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Fire Arms have been on scene as well.

The fire investigaion team was prohibited from entering the building to investigate the cause after an engineer deemed the building unsafe, Smith said.

Originally, a crane was supposed to lift the roof from the building, but the $40,000 price tag spurred officials to secure an excavator instead.

The structure housed four businesses including Applied Motion, DM Technologies which manufactured computer components and Allthermal, a heating, ventilating and air conditioning business. 

Curry also operated his own business, Northern Machines, inside the building.