The climax of the annual Burning Man bacchanalia in a Nevada desert was scheduled for Saturday, when the 40,000-plus attendees were to gather around the 40-foot-high man-statue and watch him burn.

Instead, the effigy went up in flames four days prematurely early Tuesday, and a San Francisco resident faces felony arson and destruction-of-property charges in connection with the crime of burning Burning Man too early.

According to Jamie Thompson, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the land on which the annual event is held, the fire broke out at 2:58 a.m. Tuesday. Eyewitnesses said flames began about 10 feet up the wooden man's left leg. Thompson said the huge platform beneath the statue was undamaged. No injuries were reported.

Paul David Addis, 35, posted $25,632 bail and was released Tuesday afternoon from the Pershing County Jail in Lovelock, Nev., where he was booked on felony charges of arson and destruction of property and misdemeanor possession of fireworks and resisting a public officer.

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"It's anyone's guess why someone would do this," Grace said. "People here are stunned."