WASHINGTON, USA – A 37-year-old man appeared in court on Tuesday, August 4, in Spokane, Washington after being charged with starting one of three fires that have destroyed over 700 houses and other buildings and forced 64,000 people to evacuate the city hit hardest by wildfires sweeping the drought-stricken Pacific Northwest United States.
The suspect, Spokane resident Aaron Farinacci, previously imprisoned for killing his father, made his initial appearance in county court after being jailed on a $1 million bond on a count of first-degree arson, according to court records.
Farinacci is accused of starting the Old Trails Fire, one of three that erupted on Saturday, August 1, to the north and west of Spokane, by using matches or a lighter to ignite a roadside patch of grass, Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels told reporters on Monday evening.
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 scorched Washington and Oregon for weeks, fouling the air with smoke and soot.
