The fire that destroyed an apartment building on Gray Road next to Corsetti’s Market last Friday is still under intense investigation, according to Sgt. Joel Davis of the state fire marshal’s office.

On Wednesday, Davis said Fire Marshal Joe Thomas has assigned two investigators to the case who are working alongside a Windham police detective. While many interviews have been conducted with witnesses, tenants and those associated with the apartment building’s owner, Donato Corsetti – who was found bound inside the building at the time of the fire – authorities are releasing little information to the public so as not to compromise the investigation.

Davis said the fire was not started accidentally, but was an act of arson. Whether Corsetti was the victim of a crime, he would not say.

“It was an arson. We know it was on purpose. Someone set that building on fire and right now we’re trying to determine who’s responsible for it,” Davis said. “We’re doing a criminal investigation to find out who started the fire, and that’s about all we can release right now.”

“We have not ruled anybody out as a suspect at this point and we are still in the process of interviewing people of interest trying to verify witness statements,” Davis added.

Before charges can be determined, the fire marshal’s office needs to determine what happened prior to the fire and whether any other individuals were inside the building.

The fire began at about 1 p.m. on Dec. 7, in the middle unit of a three-unit apartment building located at 447 Gray Road. There were three residents at home in a rear unit at the time of the fire, including a baby. All escaped unharmed.

Several fire departments, including Windham, Westbrook, Raymond, Cumberland and Gray, responded to the scene and had the fire extinguished by about 3 p.m. The fire gutted the two-floor middle unit, as well as the front unit, and did significant smoke damage to the third unit.

According to Davis, a female employee of Corsetti’s Market, located next door to the apartment building, came to the rescue of Corsetti after seeing him flailing about inside the middle unit of the building. Authorities confirm Corsetti was bound when the employee rescued him, but are not disclosing by what material or how he came to be bound.

Some information that has been reported so far in the mysterious fire, Davis said, has been erroneous, such as the report that duct tape was used to bind Corsetti, which Thomas reported Tuesday to the Lakes Region Weekly based on an initial call the fire marshal’s office received.

“There was nobody in duct tape at the building,” Davis said. “We’re not going to get into how we found the person, but the person was not duct-taped. We may have more information in the next couple of days on the workings of the investigation but right now it’s too early to release any of that information.”

Davis said the market employee “rescued Mr. Corsetti and the first arriving police officer helped her. From there, the fire department put the fire out. Mr. Corsetti was transferred to the hospital and treated for his injuries, which were minor smoke inhalation and, I believe, a couple marks on the head, and he was released later that evening.”

Corsetti, who did not return a call seeking comment, is a well-known public figure in Windham, having run Corsetti’s Market since 1978. From 2004-2008, he served as co-publisher, along with Corey Gilding, of The Independent weekly newspaper. Corsetti can often be seen at community events taking photographs for the newspaper. The fire occurred Friday just as the newspaper staff was to meet to discuss stories for the upcoming edition.

Investigators say they are revisiting two previous fires that destroyed Corsetti’s home, located behind the apartment building, as well as his store.

According to Windham Fire Chief Charlie Hammond, the house fire occurred in 2007 in the early morning hours.

“The fire marshals investigated that one and it was determined to be caused by an electrical short in the basement area. The family was at home. They were awakened by the smoke detector,” Hammond said.

News reports of the May 2007 incident in the Lakes Region Weekly indicate Corsetti and his family were covered in soot when they exited the home.

The store burned in August 1998, and Hammond could not recall the origin of the fire. Hammond also confirmed that he called for state investigators soon after arriving at Friday’s fire due to rapid development of the fire.

“Here’s a building on Route 202 that’s adjacent to a business and all of a sudden it’s got flames coming out the windows and roof,” Hammond said. “That, to us, tells us that this fire didn’t just happen by itself. You’ve got a fire load all of a sudden, and when we arrive to a heavy amount of fire, yep, we’re calling the fire marshals because they’ve got the expertise, they’ve got the resources, they have the authority to do full-blown investigations, and the ability to go into places that we wouldn’t even get a discussion going on.”

The apartment building had been owned by Corsetti since 1987, according to Windham property records, which estimate its taxable value at $521,900. According to the Cumberland County Registry of Deeds, the house was foreclosed Nov. 19 by Green Tree Servicing, a mortgage lender based in Illinois. Green Tree had also put the building under foreclosure twice in 2011, according to records. The latest foreclosure gave Corsetti 90 days, starting Sept. 11, to repay $429,964 or the bank would take over the property. Several other agencies, including the Maine Department of Labor and Maine Revenue Services and two Maine-based banks, have liens on the property, as well, as indicated in the deed.

Authorities were not discussing the foreclosure or drawing a connection between the foreclosure and the arson.

“We have to figure that all out, whether it has something to do with it or it doesn’t. And right now, we’re only three or four days out,” Davis said. “We’re still trying to interview people, we have other fires coming in. We have a lot of work to do. In the next couple of days, hopefully, we’ll be able to put some more information as we figure things out.”

When asked if more than one person could be involved, Davis replied, “I don’t know at this point. I just don’t know. There very well could be.”

The strange circumstances of the fire, in which the owner was found bound and flailing about inside the building as the fire was burning, are not surprising to fire investigators.

“Nothing surprises me anymore with fires. We see a lot of strange things,” Davis said. “That’s why we have to investigate them to figure out exactly what happened.”

Smoke and fire pours from a three-unit apartment building at 447 Gray Road Dec. 7. Investigators say the building’s owner, Donato Corsetti, was rescued from the unit as the fire was developing. An application for a search warrant by an investigator implicates Corsetti in the fire.