The former fire chief of Babbitt, Minn., pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to purposely setting fires in the Superior National Forest.

Prosecutors argued that Ryan Gregory Scharber, 30, set the fires between October 2011 and mid-December 2012. Scharber resigned from his post in the midst of an investigation into the fires.

Scharber could face up to 25 years in prison for the charges of setting fires on U.S. Forest Service land and attempted arson.