A man from Poplar Bluff on Tuesday admitted setting fires that burned 220 acres of U.S. Forest Service and private land in 2022 and agreed to repay $66,000.

Adam D. Gambling, 44, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau to one felony count of setting fires on public land. He admitted setting a series of fires on Nov. 8, 2022, near Beaver Lake in the Mark Twain National Forest in Butler County. Those fires burned a total of 220.68 acres, of which 95.3 acres were privately owned.