SAXONBURG — A one-time firefighter accused of trying twice to set blaze to Freeport High School faces new charges in the case.

Buffalo Township police today amended their criminal complaint against 18-year-old Lucas J. Cressler to include charges he endangered a maintenance crew working at the school Dec. 12 and 20.

On those two days and under the cover of night, police allege that Cressler ignited two fires he hoped would burn the school building on Route 356 in Buffalo Township.

Neither fire caught hold.

Police last week arrested Cressler, then still a probationary firefighter with the Freeport Volunteer Fire Department, on two counts each of arson, risking a catastrophe and criminal mischief.

The new charges include six counts of reckless endangerment, two counts of institutional vandalism to an education facility and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Cressler, who lives with his mother in Natrona Heights, Allegheny County, today waived to court all charges, giving up his right to a preliminary hearing before District Judge Sue Haggerty in Saxonburg.

He has been in the Butler County Prison since his arrest.

According to court documents, Cressler confessed to setting the fires at the school where he graduated in June.

Cressler remains a “person of interest,” but apparently not a formal suspect, in two suspicious fires in Freeport last month, according to police.

The fires Dec. 6 and 8 destroyed two vacant houses in the borough. The Dec. 6 fire spread from the vacant house to two adjacent homes, destroying one of them and leaving a family homeless.

Meanwhile, Haggerty, agreed to reduce Cressler’s bail from $50,000 to $5,000, but not without some strict conditions.