Cibecue, Ariz. ? The man charged with starting one of the blazes that has blackened a huge swath of Arizona forest and destroyed hundreds of homes was fascinated by wildfires as a boy and always wanted to be a firefighter, his brother said Monday.

Federal prosecutors have accused Leonard Gregg, 29, a part-time firefighter, of starting the blaze in dry grass because he wanted to earn money as part of a fire crew. The fire later merged with a smaller one to form the largest blaze in the state’s history.

Firefighter Jason Merydith of Lake Tahoe, Calif., drags a water hose through a smoldering fire along Arizona Highway 260 in the Tonto National Forest near Forest Lakes, Ariz. Burnout operations Monday along Highway 260 prevented the Rodeo-Chadiski fire from destroying Forest Lakes, a community of some 350 people.

Wilson Gregg, the suspect’s 41-year-old brother by adoption, told The Associated Press that his younger brother enjoyed watching slurry bombers as a child and would imitate them.

Gregg, also a firefighter, acknowledged that his brother had once spread a cooking fire across the family’s yard when he was about 4 years old. “You know how little kids are, they like to play with fire,” he said.

He said Leonard Gregg was happy when he finally became a part-time firefighter, “That was his dream.”

Leonard Gregg was unemployed before the fire, but would give any money he had to his girlfriend and her six children, his brother said. Authorities said he made $8 per hour fighting fires.

Wilson Gregg said he didn’t believe his younger brother understood the implications of what he did.

“I think the reason why he did it was because he had a financial crunch on him,” Wilson Gregg said. “He probably thought the fire wouldn’t grow that big.”

If convicted of both counts of willfully setting fire to timber or underbrush, Gregg could face 10 years in prison and be fined $500,000. A preliminary hearing was set for Wednesday.

Gregg is the second person employed to fight wildfires who is accused of setting blazes during one of the country’s most destructive fire seasons.

In Colorado, Terry Barton, a former U.S. Forest Service employee, was charged in June with setting the fire about 40 miles southwest of Denver that has burned about 137,760 acres. She has pleaded innocent.

Meanwhile on Monday, firefighters fanned out from the fire lines south of Forest Lakes, the community most threatened by the 463,000-acre blaze, to remove potential fuel or reinforce firebreaks. The blaze was about 45 percent contained.

“We believe we’ve really turned the corner on this thing,” said fire information officer Tim Buxton.