Arson suspect arrested as wildfires rage around Spokane, Washington

SPOKANE, Washington - A man has been arrested on suspicion of deliberately starting one of three fires that have destroyed hundreds of buildings and forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes in and around Spokane, Washington.

The suspect, 37-year-old Spokane resident Aaron Farinacci, was jailed on Aug 3 on a US$1 million (S$1.28 million) bond on a count of first-degree arson, Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels said.

Farinacci is accused of starting the Old Trails Fire, one of three that erupted on Aug 1 to the north and west of Spokane, by using matches or a lighter to ignite a roadside patch of grass, Nowels told reporters on the evening of Aug 3.

The origins of the two other fires remained under investigation, he said.

The three blazes together are ranked as the top firefighting priority in the US as a whole. Dozens of major fires have for weeks been scorching the drought-parched Pacific North-west, fouling the air with smoke and soot.

The Spokane-area fires have blackened more than 4,000ha on the northern fringe of the US state’s second city, home to about 230,000 residents.

Heat and droughts spread around globe

Scientists say the prolonged heat and droughts driving the growth in wildfires in North America, Europe and elsewhere in recent years are largely a function of manmade global warming, mostly caused by the use of fossil fuels.

At least 700 structures have gone up in flames since Aug 1, mostly in residential areas, with another 400, including homes, damaged or destroyed, said Benjamin Cossel of the incident command centre.

Some 64,000 people were under evacuation orders on Aug 3, up from 4,000 a day earlier.

Although no fatalities had been reported, Cossel said there was a high probability that would change, as flames spread out of wooded areas into neighbourhoods and commercial areas and search and recovery expands into currently inaccessible areas.

Nowels said the arson suspect was first detained on Aug 1 after a witness reported seeing a nervous-looking man bending down near some grass at the spot where arson investigators later determined the Old Trails Fire began.

Farinacci was questioned and released that day, but taken into custody on the afternoon of Aug 3, once investigators had obtained further evidence, Nowels said.

Prosecuting attorney Preston McCollam told reporters a formal case was filed and Farinacci would likely make his first court appearance on Aug 4. It was not immediately known whether Farinacci had obtained legal representation.

Nowels said the suspect told investigators under questioning that they “didn’t know the whole story”.

Farinacci was previously convicted of manslaughter in an unrelated case in Arizona. Officials gave no details about this.

Spokane residents grab a few keepsakes and go

Kami Fehlig, 58, was one of hundreds of area residents who fled before wind-driven flames engulfed their homes over the weekend.

Picking through charred ruins of her house, Fehlig paused on Aug 3 to recount how she and her husband watched in disbelief as fire jumped the narrow Spokane River and swept toward their parkside neighborhood on Aug 1.

The couple and their two adult daughters hurriedly packed themselves into their cars with the family dog and a few belongings – a wedding album, pet supplies, baby books.

Moments later, the power went out, and the family sped away.

“It was, ‘Go now, go now,’” Fehlig said.

Roughly 1,100 firefighters were battling the Spokane blazes on Aug 3, Cossel said, a fraction of the more than 29,200 fighting wildfires nationwide, mainly in Oregon, Washington state and Idaho, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise.

The agency reported more than 100 large new wildfires on Aug 2 in 15 US states, the bulk of them in the north-west.

In Canada, flames continued to rage across British Columbia, where record drought conditions have led to what officials over the weekend called “explosive” fire behaviour.

Fire crews in Spokane sought to capitalise on cooler, calmer weather conditions expected to prevail through Aug 4, before hot, dry winds return later in the week, Cossel said.

The Interagency Fire Center has tallied 44,722 wildfires nationwide in 2026, the highest number for this time of the year in at least a decade, with nearly 2.1 million hectares consumed, the greatest January-August acreage burnt since 2022. REUTERS