Two more teens arrested over Mary St shop fire in Gympie CBD

Police have made more arrests over the shop fire which damaged an empty building in Gympie’s main street.

Two more teenagers have been arrested by police over a shop fire which structurally damaged an empty Mary St building.

Police said on Wednesday, a 14-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy had been “dealt with under the provisions of the Youth Justices Act” in relation to the fire, which broke out about 1.30pm on Sunday, September 4.

This followed the arrest of a 13-year-old boy shortly after the incident.

Firefighters, police and paramedics were all called to the business when the offices on the second floor of the building that was once home to OCTEC employment services caught fire.

The building has been empty since the February 2022 floods.

Three teenage boys have been arrested over a shop fire which damaged a Mary St business at the weekend.

In a statement released on Monday afternoon, police said detectives from Gympie’s Child Protection Investigation Unit would allege the 13-year-old boy, accompanied by two youths “entered the abandoned building … before setting fire to a mattress and box on the first and second floors using an accelerant”.

Police further allege one of the trio then tried to put the blaze out with an extinguisher he found in the building.

Emergency crews were called to the Mary St shop just after 1.30pm Sunday.

They said the boys then fled on foot as the fire engulfed the shop, “causing significant damage to the second floor of the premises, compromising its structural integrity”.

Nobody was injured in the incident.

The boy who allegedly tried to extinguish the fire was arrested at the Nelson Reserve skate park shortly after the incident “following a brief foot chase with police”.

“The 13-year-old Gympie boy has been dealt with under the provisions of the Youth Justice Act,” police said in the statement.