The 37-year-old man accused of sparking a devastating fire in Washington allegedly studied how to maximize the blaze’s destruction and was responsible for setting 25 other fires in the Spokane area over the past year, according to a court affidavit.
Aaron Farinacci, who faces a slew of arson charges, is accused of starting the Old Trails fire, which began on 1 August and is still burning – one of three “Spokane complex” fires that have scorched hundreds of homes and displaced thousands of residents.
The other two fires were also started by people, though not necessarily deliberately, investigators have said. They remain under investigation.
Farinacci allegedly knew Spokane county was under a “red flag warning”, an advisory the National Weather Service issues when low humidity and powerful winds raise the risk of hazardous fire conditions.
According to court documents, Farinacci lit a homemade ignition device and placed it in grass on 1 August, reasoning that, with the strong gusts of wind he observed, if he started a fire it “was gonna get bad”.
Three individuals observed Farinacci in the vicinity of the fire. When questioned by police about the witnesses’s statements, Farinacci initially denied being responsible for the blaze.
If confronted by police, Farinacci said he planned to draw a knife so they would shoot him, but instead settled instead on feigning innocence, the affidavit stated.
Farinacci told investigators he viewed fire as “powerful” and “beautiful” and said it spurred “a kind of rebirth”. He researched the arsonist John Leonard Orr, a former fire captain who sparked roughly over 2,000 fires in southern California, court records show.
He also told investigators he allegedly set five fires in the span of 24 hours in 2025 to overwhelm the capacity of fire suppression efforts.
Farinacci was arraigned in court on Thursday, where a Spokane county superior court judge increased his bond to $2m. He was initially being held on a $1m bond.
Farinacci has run into trouble with law enforcement before. In 2012, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and aggravated assault after fatally shooting his father, Maricopa county court records show.
He told investigators that he had recently been struggling with “life issues” after the birth of his son in 2025.
As of Wednesday, the Old Trails fire was 5% contained, according to data from the National Interagency Fire Center.
The wildfires raging in the US Pacific north-west are blanketing the region with thick smoke and delivering some of the world’s worst air quality.
In portions of central and eastern Washington and Oregon, sensors detected air quality indexes reaching above 200, which is categorized as “very unhealthy”.
In the Seattle area, the smoke is expected to clear up by Friday, according to the Washington department of ecology, but poor air quality may persist to the east in Spokane. An air quality advisory issued by Oregon officials for the Portland area is expected to be lifted on Thursday evening.
In Washington, there are 16 uncontained wildfires burning more than 672 sq miles (1,740 sq km) and being fought by more than 7,000 fire personnel, said Thomas Kyle-Milward, a spokesperson for the Washington department of natural resources.
“We’re looking down the barrel at one of the worst fire seasons in state history,” he said.
Firefighters have taken advantage of cooler weather to begin getting a handle on wildfires that have displaced tens of thousands of people. But hotter, drier and breezier days lie ahead.
Officials said firefighters had established containment lines around the perimeters of all three fires affecting Spokane and that they were focused on reinforcing those lines. Temperatures were expected to climb from the 80s into the upper 90s, with less humidity, late this week.
Associated Press contributed reporting
