Former criminal justice college professor charged with "arson spree" near Dixie Fire

A former college professor was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday for allegedly starting four wildfires in Northern California earlier this year that threatened to trap firefighters as they battled a massive fire nearby, federal prosecutors said. 

Gary Stephen Maynard, 47, took part in an "arson spree" near where the massive Dixie Fire burned in the Shasta Trinity National Forest and the Lassen National Forest, prosecutors said .

Maynard faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count of arson to federal property, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California said in a statement.