Spokesman-Review

Lewiston Tribune, Idaho

(TNS)

Aug. 4—A 37-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of first-degree arson for allegedly setting the Old Trails fire, Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels announced Monday night.

Nowels said the man, Aaron Farinacci, was reported "acting suspicious" and kneeling in the grass about 4 miles from the Old Trails fire on Saturday.

He was taken into custody around 5 p.m. Monday, Nowels said at a news conference Monday night. Nowels said the suspect has a felony manslaughter conviction out of Arizona.

"It is a continuing and ongoing investigation," Nowels said.

According to the Phoenix News Times, the victim in Farinacci's manslaughter case was his father. Farinacci killed him when his father asked his son to do dishes, the paper reported.

But "as far as we can determine now, he is a Spokane resident," Nowels said, though he didn't know for how long.

The sheriff said Farinacci doesn't have any prior arson convictions, but he has been contacted before for "arson-related behavior."

The Old Trails Fire that destroyed around 700 homes Saturday is presumed to be human-caused, according to Washington State Department of Natural Resources spokesperson Ryan Rodruck. The Department of Natural Resources is the lead investigator on the fire.

"We are working with the Spokane County Sheriff's Office and our fire district partners to investigate. We have ruled out any natural cause," Rodruck said via email Monday. "The investigative process is very deliberative."

The fire is one of three in Spokane County, together totaling nearly 8,000 acres. The causes other two fires, Autumn Lane and Fairview, remains under investigation.

The Old Trails fire was reported around noon Saturday near West Euclid Road and North Old Trails Road, northeast of Airway Heights.

Near the reported ignition site is BNSF Railway tracks. The only land burned in that area is north of the tracks, The Spokesman-Review observed Monday. Also nearby was pink tape strewn around multiple trees.

That Saturday at 12:37 p.m., the fire was believed to be around 200 acres and growing fast, The Spokesman-Review observed from the 8800 block of Euclid. Nearby residents were seen running frantically down Old Trails Road, away from the cloud of smoke erupting behind them.

Euclid was unscathed at the time. Surrounding homes were fine. By 12:45 p.m., however, the fire had jumped Old Trails Road. It was only a matter of seconds before flames approached Euclid, nearly trapping anything on the road in its path.

Those on Indian Bluff were observed packing their cars and grabbing their pets by 12:55 p.m. Their homes were burned to the ground as of Monday morning.

Law enforcement officials are searching for 14 people in the aftermath of massive fires that burned hundreds of homes.

No deaths have been reported from the fires, said Nowels. He said the county received 290 reports of people asking for help evacuating loved ones or themselves. Investigators had located all but 14 from those reports as of Monday morning.

Deputies are trying to reach them, but Nowels stressed these are not missing people.

"I do not want people to think that we have 14 missing people. These are people who may have called for help evacuating
and many of them likely did get evacuated," he said. "With poor cell phone coverage, cell phone batteries die, or they get to some place where they do find shelter, and we haven't been able to reach them by phone."

"They are people we are just trying to confirm are fine," Nowels added.

The three major fires in the area — Old Trails in Northwest Spokane, Autumn Lane in the Suncrest area and Fairview in Mead — are burning over a combined 8,000 acres as of Monday morning, according to Inciweb.

Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown warned that Level 3 "go now" evacuation areas remain dangerous.

Brown asked evacuees for patience. Authorities have no timeline on when people can return to their homes or the charred remains. It could be a week. It could be weeks, she said.

"We don't know," Brown said. "It's neighborhood by neighborhood and block by block. And so we really want you to just pay attention. They are regularly reevaluating the situation, the weather, the fire and the potential for things to reignite."

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