Former professor convicted of starting fires behind crews battling California's second-largest wildfire

SACRAMENTO – ONE former teacher was sentenced to more than five years in prison for starting three fires behind firefighters working on one of the largest wildfires in California state history.

Gary Maynard, 49, was sentenced to five years and three months in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to pay just over $13,000 in restitution for three counts of arson on federal property during the Dixie fire, prosecutors said Thursday.

“Maynard embarked on an arson attack on federal lands while California was facing one of the worst fire seasons in history. He intentionally made a dangerous situation even more perilous by lighting some of his fires behind the men and women fighting the Dixie Fire, potentially cutting off any chance of escape,” said U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert.

The Dixie Fire has burned more than 960,000 acres in three months in Butte, Plumas, Lassen, Shasta and Tehama counties. The only fire to burn more acres was the August 2020 Complex Fire, which burned more than 1 million acres in seven Northern California counties.

Maynard, a former criminal justice professor at Sonoma State University, admitted to starting the Cascade Fire on July 20, 2021, the Everitt Fire on July 21, 2021, the Ranch Fire on August 7, 2021 and the Conard fire on Aug. 7, 2021. Dec. 7, 2021, prosecutors said.

The maximum sentence for each count was 20 years in state prison and a $250,000 fine, while the minimum sentence for arson on federal property is five years in prison.