A California firefighter has been arrested and accused of setting five blazes in the state's wine country, even as his fellow firefighters battle flames that have consumed almost a million acres and forced thousands of evacuations in the state this year.

An off-duty California firefighter has been accused of starting multiple fires in wine country over a month's span.

A California firefighter, Robert Matthew Hernandez, has been arrested for allegedly setting five fires in the state's wine country. Hernandez, an engineer with Cal Fire, was detained on suspicion of arson.

Robert Hernandez, a 38-year-old fire apparatus engineer with Cal Fire, the state’s main firefighting agency, was arrested on suspicion of setting fires on forest land near the Northern California towns of Geyserville, Healdsburg and Windsor between Aug. 15 and Sept. 14.

A Cal Fire firefighter was arrested Friday morning on suspicion of starting five separate wildfires in the state within the last six weeks.

An employee of California's state fire protection agency has been arrested on suspicion of starting five forest fires in recent weeks, local officials have said. Robert Hernandez, a 38-year-old apparatus engineer at Cal Fire,

Cal Fire engineer Robert Hernandez was arrested on suspicion of committing arson on forest land in the areas surrounding Geyserville, Healdsburg and Windsor.

A news release issued by Cal Fire states 38-year-old Healdsburg man Robert Hernandez was arrested "on suspicion of arson to forest land."