A convicted felon with a manslaughter record has been arrested for allegedly setting the largest of three wildfires that destroyed more than 700 buildings in Spokane, Washington, leaving tens of thousands of residents with nothing.
Aaron F. Farinacci, 37, was booked Monday on suspicion of first-degree arson in connection with the Old Trails Fire, the most destructive of three blazes burning across the Spokane area. A witness spotted Farinacci kneeling near dry grass where the fire began, acting nervously, and called in a tip. When officers detained him, they found waterproof matches and a butane lighter on his person. He denied setting the fire, AP News reported.
Farinacci is being held on $1 million bond. He has a prior felony manslaughter conviction in Arizona, for killing his own father, according to Breitbart. Authorities obtained both an arrest warrant for Farinacci and a search warrant for his residence in collaboration with the Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.
The three Spokane-area fires have collectively destroyed at least 700 buildings, with another 400 structures not yet assessed. Roughly 67,000 people remain under evacuation orders. As of Tuesday, Sheriff John Nowels confirmed there have been no fatalities and all missing persons have been located, a narrow mercy given the scale of the destruction.
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson called the disaster "likely the worst natural disaster in Spokane history." But his second statement cut closer to the bone.
Ferguson, as the Washington Examiner reported, said the arrest deepened the tragedy:
"It just takes a tragic situation and makes it more heartbreaking to think that much of this damage could have been caused by an individual doing this on purpose."
Sheriff Nowels laid out the sequence at a press conference late Monday. A community member saw a man bent by the side of the road near some grass, appearing nervous, and reported it. Body camera footage and follow-up investigation confirmed Farinacci as the suspect. Nowels credited the public directly.
As CBS News reported, Nowels described the evidence found on Farinacci:
"We believe it was matches or a lighter. When he was detained... he was found to be in possession of some waterproof matches and a butane lighter."
Nowels also stated that Farinacci was arrested only in connection with the Old Trails Fire. There was no indication linking him to the other two blazes, the Fairview Fire and the Autumn Lane Fire. But the sheriff signaled the investigation is far from over.
Fox News reported Nowels said authorities would continue looking into Farinacci's past: "We will be looking into any other crimes Mr. Farinacci may have committed in the past."
That a convicted felon, one who served prison time for manslaughter, was walking free with fire-starting tools in the middle of the worst drought Spokane has seen in years raises questions no press conference has yet answered. The nature of his Arizona conviction, the circumstances of his release, and whether any supervision was in place remain unclear.
The fires broke out Saturday amid extreme drought, bone-dry brush, high heat, and high winds. Firefighters went door to door trying to save homes but were quickly overwhelmed. By Sunday and Monday, the Autumn Lane Fire had become the primary focus of suppression efforts, even as the Old Trails Fire, now linked to alleged arson, continued to spread.
Daniel Ramey, a spokesperson for California Interagency Incident Management Team 7, which deployed to Spokane to assist, told reporters the region had received no rain for the entire month of July.
"There's always a chance when you live next to trees and grass and the beautiful nature that you're going to have a potential for fire like we saw. We didn't have rain for the whole month of July in this area, so everything was extremely dry. Everything was susceptible to those new starts, like we saw."
More than 1,000 firefighters were battling the blazes. The fires burned approximately 16 square miles with zero containment as of Tuesday morning. And the forecast offered no relief. Ramey warned that temperatures would trend into the 90s from Wednesday through Friday, tightening the window for crews to make progress before dangerous conditions returned.
Gov. Ferguson declared a statewide wildfire emergency and imposed a prohibition on most outdoor and agricultural burning through September 30. At least 16 major fires were burning across Washington state. The Pacific Northwest fire season was already being described as one of the worst in three decades.
For the families who lost everything, the cause of the fire, deliberate or natural, changes nothing about what they face. But it adds a particular cruelty.
Anna Andreachi lost her home in the blaze. Her father had recently died, and his belongings were still inside.
"All of our memories are gone. My dad just died, and all of his stuff was still in there, too."
Miriam Sim, 76, surveyed the ruins of her home and offered three words to AP News: "There's nothing to save."
Joe Cvancara and his family managed to save their own house by digging a fire line around it. His neighbor's home and at least eight others nearby were not as fortunate. Cvancara described the feeling as "almost survivor's guilt" and said he planned to open his home to displaced neighbors. "I know it's going to take a long time to rebuild," he said.
The broader Western fire picture only compounds the strain. A fire in Utah burned nearly 70,000 acres after doubling in size Monday. The Big Rock Fire in southeastern Idaho consumed more than 2,500 acres and forced evacuations. California, though relatively quiet so far, had already seen its firefighting resources stretched thin. Wildfires across the Western U.S. have been driven by the same combination of extreme heat, drought, and wind that turned Spokane into an inferno.
Sheriff Nowels credited ordinary citizens for Farinacci's swift arrest. Just The News reported that a public tip and body camera footage were both instrumental in identifying the suspect.
Nowels put it plainly at his press conference:
"As it happens in so many critical cases, it was citizens who were paying attention to their surroundings, being aware and willing to step up and say something that led to the relatively quick apprehension of Mr. Farinacci."
That an alert neighbor did what the system apparently could not, keep a convicted killer away from the conditions for catastrophe, is a fact worth sitting with. A man who went to prison for taking his own father's life was free, carrying waterproof matches and a lighter, in a region that hadn't seen a drop of rain in a month. The extreme heat gripping the country made every acre of dry brush a fuse waiting for a spark.
More than 700 families lost their homes. Sixty-seven thousand people were driven from their neighborhoods. And if the charges hold, much of that destruction traces back to one man's deliberate choice.
Accountability starts with the arson charge. But it shouldn't end there. Somewhere between a manslaughter conviction and a Monday afternoon in the driest brush in Spokane's memory, the system lost track of a man it had every reason to watch.
