Man charged with setting Spokane’s largest wildfire went to prison for killing his father

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A man who went to prison for killing his father in 2010 has been charged with intentionally setting the largest of the wildfires that have destroyed hundreds of buildings in and around Washington state’s second-largest city and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes.

Aaron F. Farinacci, of Spokane, was arrested Monday and booked on suspicion of first-degree arson in connection with the Old Trails Fire, the biggest of the three blazes in and around the eastern Washington city, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office said. His bond was set at $1 million and he’s due in court later Tuesday.

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According to an affidavit, Farinacci denied under questioning by sheriff’s deputies that he set the fire and said he had matches and a lighter on him when he was detained because he smokes.

The fires, which hadn’t been contained at all as of Tuesday morning, have destroyed at least 700 buildings and forced about 67,000 people to evacuate. Authorities haven’t said what might have caused the other two blazes.

A tip leads to an arrest

A tip from a community member who saw a nervous-looking man bent by the side of the road near some grass led authorities to Farinacci, though they released him after initial questioning, Sheriff John Nowels said Monday.

When major crimes detectives started investigating, they again identified Farinacci and determined that the fire had started where the witness had reportedly seen him, Nowels said. Farinacci, 37, had matches and a lighter when he was detained, Nowels said.

“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,” he said.

Farinacci remained jailed ahead of Tuesday’s hearing. The Spokane County Public Defender’s office will represent him during the appearance, and a lawyer will be assigned to him afterward if it’s determined he needs one, said its director, Colin Charbonneau. In an effort to get comment from Farinacci’s family, a message was sent to a possible social media account for a brother.

Farinacci, then age 21, shot and killed his father in Mesa, Arizona, during a 2010 argument about washing dishes, police said. Farinacci also shot himself but survived.

He was charged with murder but pleaded guilty in 2012 to manslaughter and aggravated assault, records show. Farinacci was released from prison in 2020.

Returning to destroyed homes

The Old Trails Fire began Saturday northwest of downtown Spokane and eventually jumped the Spokane River and tore through neighborhoods.

The three fires had burned about 16 square miles (about 41 square kilometers) by early Tuesday. After the weekend winds died down and shifted, sending smoke across the western part of the state, including the Seattle area, firefighting conditions were expected to worsen again Wednesday, with winds picking up and temperatures expected to reach the 90s (32-37 degrees Celsius), said Benjamin Cossel, a spokesperson for the fire incident management team.

On Monday, some residents who had to flee blazes over the weekend returned to find homes that had been burned to the ground. In some cases, only chimneys were left standing.

“There’s nothing to save,” Miriam Sim, 76, said as she and her husband, Daniel Sim, surveyed the ruins of the home where they had lived since 2005.

“At our age, do we want to rebuild?” her husband asked.

In one Spokane neighborhood, blackened vehicles, a boat twisted by the heat and melted plastic recycling bins remained. Across the street, lawns were still green and houses were spared, as residents continued to run hoses or sprinklers to water their properties.

“Hundreds of people have completely lost their homes and farms, and many are prohibited from returning to their homes or neighborhoods as crews continue to extinguish smoldering embers,” the state’s congressional delegation wrote Monday in asking President Donald Trump to approve an expedited emergency declaration, which he did.

No deaths or major injuries reported

Cpl. Mark Gregory, a spokesperson for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, said the county initially received nearly 300 reports of missing people, but by Monday had cleared all but 14. Those still unaccounted for were likely people who hadn’t been in contact since evacuating, not people who were truly missing or in danger, authorities said.

More than 1,000 firefighters, many from out of state, arrived by Monday, and that number was expected to double in the next few days.

The fires were among dozens across the Western U.S. stretching the ability of federal, state and local agencies to fight them. At least 390 square miles (1,000 square kilometers) of land has burned across Washington, which has been dealing with a severe drought and paltry snowpack.

Authorities warned people not to fly drones near the burned areas, saying it could force them to delay aerial firefighting operations.

‘So much loss for so many people’

Angela and Wayde Deatherage, both 49, evacuated shortly after 3 p.m. Saturday with a son, grabbing a few bins of family photos and heirloom rings but not much else. Roughly 30 minutes later, their security camera was sending fire notifications to Angela’s phone.

Wayde Deatherage took some back roads and returned by early evening. He stopped at the end of the street and called his wife: “Our house is done.”

Deatherage, however, wasn’t done with his neighborhood. He propped a hose at another house so it sprayed the property. That home survived.

The couple returned to their property Sunday.

“It’s just ash,” Angela Deatherage said of the home where they had lived for nearly 22 years. “It’s like our house sunk down in the basement. … There’s just so much loss for so many people.”

Karen Faggioli, 61, figured she would be returning to her home. She recalled how other recent fires had been brought under control. But a relative texted her the bad news: Her house and three vehicles had been destroyed. A daughter lost her nearby house, too.

“Why cry? What’s crying going to do? I’ve been through so many tragedies myself,” said Faggioli, who is recovering from breast cancer. “This is nothing. Like I told my granddaughter, ‘We’re strong — and now we get all new things.’ I’m emotionally numb.”

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Johnson reported from Seattle and White from Detroit. Associated Press writers Manuel Valdes in Spokane; John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; and Martha Bellisle and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.