Authorities arrested 37-year-old Aaron Farinacci on suspicion of igniting one of three major Spokane-area wildfires that have burned more than 10,000 acres, destroyed or damaged roughly 1,100 structures and forced about 64,000 people to evacuate.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A Spokane man has been arrested on suspicion of deliberately starting the Old Trails Fire, one of three fast-moving wildfires that have destroyed hundreds of buildings and prompted mass evacuations across communities north and west of Spokane, Washington.
Aaron Farinacci, 37, was booked into jail Monday on a first-degree arson charge and ordered held on a $1 million bond, Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels said.
Investigators allege Farinacci used matches or a lighter to set fire to a roadside patch of grass Saturday, starting the Old Trails Fire. Nowels announced the arrest during a Monday evening news conference.
The causes of the two other Spokane-area fires remained under investigation.
Together, the three blazes were ranked as the highest firefighting priority in the United States. They are among dozens of major fires that have burned for weeks across the drought-stricken Pacific Northwest, sending smoke and soot across the region.
The Spokane-area fires had burned more than 10,000 acres, or approximately 4,000 hectares, along the northern edge of Washington’s second-largest city. Spokane has a population of about 230,000.
At least 700 structures had burned since the fires erupted Saturday, most of them in residential areas, according to Benjamin Cossel of the incident command center. An additional 400 buildings, including homes, had been damaged or destroyed.
Evacuation orders covered approximately 64,000 people Monday, a substantial increase from about 4,000 residents one day earlier.
No deaths had been confirmed, but Cossel warned that fatalities remained a strong possibility as flames moved from wooded areas into residential and commercial districts. Search-and-recovery crews had not yet been able to reach all affected locations.
Cossel said the probability of finding fatalities was high as access expanded into areas that remained too dangerous to enter.
Authorities initially detained Farinacci on Saturday after a witness reported seeing a man behaving nervously and bending near grass at the location where investigators later determined the Old Trails Fire began.
Deputies questioned him and released him that day. He was arrested Monday afternoon after investigators gathered additional evidence, Nowels said.
Prosecuting attorney Preston McCollam said a formal criminal case had been filed and Farinacci was expected to make his first court appearance Tuesday. It was not immediately clear whether he had retained an attorney.
During questioning, Farinacci told investigators that they “didn’t know the whole story,” according to Nowels.
Farinacci was previously convicted of manslaughter in an unrelated Arizona case. Officials did not release further information about that conviction.
Hundreds of residents fled their homes as wind-driven flames spread through the area over the weekend.
Kami Fehlig, 58, returned Monday to the burned remains of her home and described how she and her husband watched the fire cross the narrow Spokane River before advancing toward their neighborhood near a park Saturday.
Fehlig, her husband and their two adult daughters quickly loaded themselves, the family dog and a small collection of belongings into their vehicles. They managed to take a wedding album, pet supplies and baby books before the electricity failed and they drove away.
“It was, ‘Go now, go now,’” Fehlig said.
Approximately 1,100 firefighters were assigned to the Spokane-area blazes Monday, Cossel said.
Nationwide, more than 29,200 firefighters were battling wildfires, with much of the activity concentrated in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise.
The agency reported more than 100 new large wildfires Sunday across 15 states, with most occurring in the Northwest.
Across the border in Canada, fires continued burning through British Columbia, where record drought conditions produced what officials described over the weekend as “explosive” fire behavior.
Firefighters near Spokane hoped to use cooler temperatures and calmer conditions expected through Tuesday to strengthen containment lines before hot, dry winds returned later in the week, Cossel said.
The National Interagency Fire Center recorded 44,722 wildfires nationwide during the year, the highest total for that point in the calendar in at least a decade.
Nearly 5.2 million acres had burned, representing the largest amount of land consumed between January and August since 2022.
Scientists have linked the prolonged heat and drought contributing to increasingly severe wildfires in North America, Europe and other regions largely to human-caused global warming, driven primarily by fossil-fuel use.
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