SPOKANE, Wash. — A man charged with intentionally setting a wildfire that's destroyed hundreds of buildings in and around Washington state's second-largest city was contacted by law enforcement about two fires last year, though he wasn't charged in either, court documents show.
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 three blazes that have destroyed at least 700 buildings and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes. According to court records, he denied setting the fire. His bond was set at $1 million and he was due in court later Tuesday.
Authorities haven't said what caused the other two fires burning around Spokane. No deaths have been reported.
Farinacci, 37, served about a decade in prison after killing his father in Arizona in 2010. Last year, authorities questioned him about two fire-related cases in Spokane, according to a probable cause statement filed in Spokane County Superior Court.
One involved several “bus-sized” fires in an area near Farinacci's apartment in July 2025, police records in that case say. The other involved a wildfire in a state park that prompted evacuation notices the following month. In neither case was he arrested.
A tip leads to an arrest
On Saturday, a 64-year-old man who lives in a rural neighborhood northwest of Spokane was driving with his grandson when he saw a man standing along some railroad tracks and looking toward nearby trees, sheriff's detective Michael Drapeau wrote in the probable cause statement. About 10 minutes later, as they were returning home, the man was still there, this time bending over as he faced the tree line. He stood up and acted “nervous” as the vehicle passed, the man told police.
Soon after they returned home, the man's daughter noticed smoke rising from the area and called 911. The man drove back there and gave a police officer a description of the man he had seen — bald, white, wearing a green shirt and carrying a backpack.
A responding sheriff's deputy saw a man matching that description walking more than one mile (1.6 kilometers) away and detained him. Another deputy also responded, and the man who reported the tip showed up to identify the person in custody — Farinacci — as the one he had seen in the area of the fire, the document states.
Farinacci had a backpack and a fanny pack, in which he had a pack of cigarettes, waterproof matches and a butane lighter, it says. He told the deputies he didn't start the fire and he denied having been in the area where it started. He was wearing a green T-shirt that read, “who needs luck I have charm,” the detective wrote.
The deputies were unaware of Farinacci's prior fire-related contacts and the cause of the Old Trails Fire hadn't been determined yet, so they released him to continue working on evacuation efforts, Drapeau wrote.
But the following day, a wildland fire investigator for the state determined that the fire had started in the same area where Farinacci had been seen, the document says. The investigator ruled out other possible causes, including sparks from electric wires or passing trains, and police arrested Farinacci on Monday.
“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,” Sheriff John Nowels told reporters Monday.
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, The Associated Press sent a message to a possible social media account for a brother.
Police contacted him about earlier fires
A detective investigating the Old Trails Fire ran a criminal history check on Farinacci and found that he had been contacted by law enforcement twice before during fire investigations.
Spokane police responded to reports of several fires on July 8, 2025, near Farinacci’s apartment. The area near the Spokane River involved several “bus-sized” fires and prompted a significant emergency response, according to a police record.
The Washington State Patrol made contact with Farinacci the following month while pursuing a suspect in a wildfire at Riverside State Park. They found him on a park bench, “seemingly out of breath from possibly running.” They took photos of him. He was wearing a green T-shirt just like the one he was seen wearing on Saturday, the document says.
Convicted of manslaughter
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.
A judge in 2011 found that Farinacci was mentally fit to assist in his own defense, though defense lawyer Jose Colon continued to raise questions about his mental health and noted that he had been hospitalized multiple times for psychiatric treatment, court records show.
In a letter to the judge, Beth Farinacci, who had married Farinacci's father, said second-degree murder, not manslaughter, would have been a more appropriate way to resolve the case. But she went along with the plea deal because she believed a trial wouldn’t be beneficial to her family.
“Manslaughter is for when someone accidentally kills another person. It is not for someone who intentionally points a loaded gun at their father and shots him in his face and back,” Beth Farinacci wrote.
Farinacci was released from probation in Arizona in early 2024. A probation officer said Farinacci maintained a stable residence with his girlfriend and her family in the previous year, but also noted he hadn’t completed a mental health evaluation or domestic violence treatment.
Residents return to destroyed homes
The fires were among dozens across the Western U.S. that have stretched the ability of federal, state and local agencies to fight them. More than 1,000 firefighters, many from outside of Washington state, were in the Spokane area Tuesday, and that number was expected to rise.
Winds died down Monday and Tuesday, aiding the efforts of firefighters, but the weather was expected to get hotter by Wednesday.
In one 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.
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.
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Johnson and Bellisle reported from Seattle. Associated Press writers Ed White in Detroit; Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.
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