SPOKANE, Wash. – A religious statue stood undamaged in the Balboa neighborhood for days after the fire tore through, a ceramic figure rising from the ash. Everything around it had burned. More than 700 structures collapsed in the Old Trails Fire, tens of thousands of families were forced to flee, and 16 square miles of eastern Washington were scorched in one of the most destructive wildfires in state history. On Monday, prosecutors said they believed they knew who started it.
Aaron Farinacci, 37, was charged with first-degree arson in Spokane County. Investigators concluded he was responsible for igniting the Old Trails Fire, the largest of three blazes that devastated Spokane and its surrounding communities last weekend. A judge set his bail at $1 million. He remained in the Spokane County Jail as his arraignment was scheduled for later in the week.
The arrest did not emerge from a sophisticated surveillance operation. It came, CNN reported, through the quick thinking of an ordinary neighbor – a grandfather who noticed something that did not fit and alerted fire investigators. Authorities were then able to build the case through witness accounts and evidence gathered while the fire was still burning.
The charges thrust Farinacci, a man with virtually no public profile in Spokane, into the center of the city’s worst disaster in living memory. And they brought an unexpected dimension to the story of the fire: the man now accused of setting it had already killed once before.
In 2010, Farinacci killed his adoptive father in Mesa, Arizona. Court records show he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2012 and was sentenced to prison. He served roughly a decade before his release in 2020. Court records obtained by NBC News describe a long history of mental health issues that accompanied him from Arizona to the Pacific Northwest.
When Farinacci arrived in Spokane, or what brought him there, was not addressed in the initial court filing. But he was not unknown to fire investigators. The Associated Press reported that Farinacci had been questioned in connection with two separate fires in the Spokane area the previous year. Neither led to charges, and both remained unsolved when the Old Trails Fire began in the first days of August.
The Old Trails Fire erupted amid conditions that fire scientists described as extreme. Washington Governor Bob Ferguson had declared a Washington statewide wildfire emergency as a heat dome settled over the Pacific Northwest, driving temperatures to record highs and reducing brush and timber to tinder. Twelve large fires were burning across more than 300 square miles of Washington state when the Old Trails Fire jumped the Spokane River and raced through residential neighborhoods.
Within days, FEMA emergency aid was authorized for Washington state as the scope of destruction became clear. More than 4,000 firefighters were deployed across active fire lines. A California-based Type 1 incident management team assumed unified command of the Spokane operation, drawing resources from across the country into the region.
The evacuation of 67,000 Spokane-area residents was the largest emergency displacement in the city’s modern history. Residents under Level 3 orders had minutes to decide what to take. Some who returned days later found foundations and melted metal where their homes had stood. Entire blocks on streets like West Tiffany Avenue, where families had lived for decades, were gone.
Unauthorized drones had grounded firefighting aircraft over active fire zones at critical moments during the first days of the blaze. The interference forced helicopters to land at a time when every hour mattered in the effort to slow the fire’s advance.
Washington State Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove, who visited the burn zone as part of the state’s emergency response, described the scale of destruction as among the most severe he had seen in the region, according to local reports. The state’s Department of Natural Resources, which Upthegrove oversees, coordinates wildland firefighting across Washington.
Spokane County authorities said the arson investigation had begun while parts of the Old Trails Fire were still burning. The decision to charge Farinacci with first-degree arson, rather than a lesser count, signaled prosecutors’ confidence in the evidence assembled. The charge carries potential sentences of several years to decades in Washington state, depending on prior criminal history and the circumstances of the offense.
Farinacci appeared briefly in court following his arrest and said little. His attorney had not issued a public statement by Tuesday. A fuller accounting of the evidence against him was expected before his arraignment.
The case is likely to raise questions that extend beyond the courtroom. Farinacci had been questioned about two fires in the Spokane area the year before his arrest, yet no charges had been filed. How a man with his background – a manslaughter conviction, documented mental health challenges, and prior contact with fire investigators – came to be living in a city now dealing with its worst wildfire season on record remains an open question for both prosecutors and the community he is accused of devastating.
For the thousands of families who returned to find nothing standing on their street, answers may take years to arrive. The investigation was just beginning.
