Casey Fury, the civilian employee who set fire to the USS Miami nuclear-powered attack submarine in Maine was sentenced to 17 years in prison, today.

Fury pleaded guilty to two counts of arson, one for the Miami fire, the other for a fire he set weeks later.

Sea Coast Online reports:

"'From the bottom of my heart, I'm truly sorry,' Fury said during his sentencing hearing. 'I can't put into words the remorse I feel. I had no intention of hurting anyone.'"

"Eric Hardy, a shipyard firefighter, said Fury should get the maximum sentence.

"'I feel sorry for the family, but to me this is unforgivable,' he said in court Friday. Hardy was seriously injured helping a fellow firefighter falling down a ladder and said some of colleagues were trapped at one point and he doesn't know how they escaped."

As we reported last summer, Fury said he set the fire — that cost $400 million in damage — because he wanted to get out of work early. Sea Coast Online reported at the time that Fury was "distressed over a text conversation with an ex-girlfriend."

WMUR in Maine reports that the Navy said the submarine can be repaired, but "those repairs have been delayed because of automatic federal budget cuts."

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Source: NPR