College professor charged with starting blaze near Dixie Fire

Authorities in California charged a 47-year-old college professor with arson for allegedly setting a fire in Lassen County on Saturday near the Dixie Fire, the still-raging blaze in the northern Sierra Nevada 250 miles northeast of San Francisco, according to the Sacramento Bee, which broke the news.

Gary Stephen Maynard, whom both Sonoma State and Santa Clara University list online as a lecturer, is suspected of starting a series of fires in the area, the Bee reported. 

A judge ordered Tuesday that Maynard be held in Sacramento County Main Jail, and according to jail records, he was arrested by Cal Fire and booked Monday, and is being held with no bail. 

Cal Fire said it isn't releasing information on the incident at this time.

Sonoma State confirmed that Maynard was a part-time lecturer in the department of criminology and criminal justice in fall 2020. He currently doesn't have an appointment with the university, the school said.

The Santa Clara website notes he's a lecturer in the sociology department. The Sonoma State website says his areas of expertise are criminal justice, social science research methods, cults and deviant behavior.

Authorities launched an investigation of Maynard on July 20, and when he was stopped by police in Susanville on Aug. 3, a U.S. Forest Service agent placed a tracking device under his car, the Bee said.

"Over the course of the last several weeks, Maynard has set a series of fires in the...