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.

A California firefighter was arrested on suspicion of arson in a series of small fires that burned in wine country in recent weeks, officials said Friday.

Sonoma’s Carneros Wine Region, known for Pinot, is dominated by large-acreage wine producers. Sonoma, the state’s last missionary town and site of the Bear Flag Republic revolt that led to California’s independence from Mexico, has a historic colonial-era downtown plaza filled with shops and restaurants.