Arson arrest made as Spokane wildfires force thousands to flee

Spokane County sheriff’s deputies arrested Aaron F. Farinacci, 37, of Spokane on suspicion of first-degree arson in connection with the Old Trails Fire, the largest of three wildfires burning around the city. The arrest came as the blazes had destroyed at least 700 buildings and forced about 67,000 people to evacuate around Washington’s second-largest city.

Authorities said a tip led investigators to Farinacci. Some coverage said the Old Trails Fire began on Aug. 1, and one account said police found matches and a lighter after he was spotted near the start of the fire. The case places a single alleged ignition point inside a much larger emergency, where one human act can become catastrophic once drought, heat and wind have already primed the landscape to burn.

Gov. Bob Ferguson declared a statewide emergency and imposed a burn ban as the fires spread through eastern Washington under record drought and strong winds. Spokane Convention Center was opened as an evacuation shelter, giving displaced families a place to go as neighborhoods across the region emptied out. Other coverage put the number of people forced from their homes at about 65,000, underscoring how quickly the evacuation zone expanded.

No deaths or major injuries had been reported. Even so, the scale of the destruction has already made the Spokane fires a case study in prevention gaps, with officials confronting both the criminal allegation against Farinacci and the broader question of how a region so dry and wind-driven could become vulnerable to one more spark.

The Old Trails Fire’s status as the largest of the three blazes has also sharpened scrutiny of response and evacuation planning in a city that now has to manage thousands of residents pushed into emergency housing, traffic disruption and the loss of homes and businesses at once. The arrest gives investigators a specific suspect, but the damage around Spokane shows how quickly an alleged arson can cascade into a regional public-safety crisis when conditions are set for fire to run unchecked.