(Image source from: CNN.com)

A man has been charged with multiple felony counts comprising incendiarism in suspect of deliberately setting fire to a residential area in Southern California.

The 51-year-old Forrest Gordon Clark is accused of setting the Holy Jim Fire in Cleveland National Park, which has grown to about 10,000 acres since it began on Monday afternoon and remained just 5 percent contained as of Thursday, according to the United States Forest Service. The wildfire has prompted over 20,000 evacuations.

Clark, who faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if condemned, was held on bail of $1 million.

No human deaths had been reported in connection to the fire, but at least a dozen homes and else structures have been burned.

Within Orange County and across the state of California, the role Clark is alleged to have played in the fire that has aggravated ire and indignation, which is going through a singular wildfire season that has strained emergency response resources.

Michael Milligan, the Holy Jim volunteer fire chief, told the Orange County Register that Clark displayed erratic behavior and had a long-standing feud with his neighbors. Milligan said Clark had sent him threatening messages predicting Holy Jim would burn down.

By Sowmya Sangam