LAKEPORT, Calif. » As residents of the tiny Northern California town of Lower Lake began returning to their destroyed or damaged homes, the man accused of setting the Clayton fire appeared Wednesday in a Lakeport courtroom to face charges that he started not only that destructive blaze, but many others in the same vicinity.

The Lake County courtroom was packed with area residents and reporters as arson charges were formally read in Lake Superior Court against Damin Anthony Pashilk, 40, a construction worker with a history of criminal charges in Lake and Napa counties stretching back at least two decades, most either for drug possession or driving on a suspended license.

Pashilk entered the hushed courtroom shackled and hiding his face from the television cameras. He faces 19 charges, including aggravated arson, arson of forest land and arson with damages in excess of $7 million. He also faces a count of methamphetamine possession and a charge of driving on a suspended license.

Pashilk did not enter a plea Wednesday. He is being held at the Lake County Jail with bail set at $5 million. His next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 7.

Lake County prosecutors allege Pashilk set a dozen fires, including the Clayton fire and July 2015’s Long fire, set on forest land at Highway 20 east of New Long Valley Road, and attempted to set a 13th, all between July 2, 2015, and last weekend. Investigators have tallied the damage wrought in the Clayton fire at more than $7 million.

“We are very confident that this is our guy,” said Scott MacLean, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the agency investigating the blaze at a news conference following the afternoon arraignment. He called Pashilk a “serial arsonist.”

“When something like this happens, it devastates us all,” he said.

Pashilk learned his firefighting skills while serving time at the California Correctional Center in Susanville.

At the afternoon news conference, MacLean acknowledged Pashilk received two months of fire training while in prison in 2007 on drug and firearms charges, but said the man “never went out on the line, never fought any fires.” The Cal Fire spokesman also brushed aside speculation that Pashilk’s training motivated the alleged arson.

“It may have given him knowledge of fire behavior,” MacLean said, “but it’s not a motive behind the fire.”

Fire crews continue to gain ground on the blaze, which roared to life Saturday and Sunday and tore through the tiny, economically depressed town of Lower Lake, destroying 175 structures and forcing thousands of residents from their homes.

Some Lower Lake residents returned to their homes Wednesday to begin assessing the damage.

They asked each other about looters and tried to protect boats and cars that somehow escaped a blaze that consumed houses. So far, a heavy presence of firefighters and PG&E repair crews had reassured residents their properties were safe.

Jamie Gekas, 63, lost five houses and several barns on a 30-acre property that had been in his wife’s family since 1962. He built the family’s main house in 1985. It was a two-story Victorian-style home that had vanished from the landscape in the fire.

“We were more or less the library for the family,” keeping photographs and toys that had been in the family for generations, he said.

They’re all gone.

“Everything we wanted to keep is gone,” said his daughter, Tarin Benson, 36. “My kids won’t have anything for us to pass on to them.”

The family also lost one of its nine horses. Another miniature pony is at the University of California, Davis veterinary hospital receiving treatment for burns and damage to his lungs.

Benson reached the horse Sunday while flames licked the family’s property. She brought water to the animals and held the injured pony for most of the night.

She’s the principal at Lower Lake Elementary School. One of its classrooms was destroyed and five more were damaged. Her staff members had a meeting Wednesday to prepare for the first day of school this week.

They’ve received donations of full backpacks stuffed with supplies from neighboring towns. It’s not clear yet how many of her students have been displaced by the fire.

The family met with an insurance representative Wednesday. They’re bracing for a long period of rebuilding but acknowledged they’re better off than some neighbors.

“At least we have a daughter to take care of us,” said Gekas, who is staying at Benson’s home.

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©2016 The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.)