Spokane Fires Destroy More Than 700 Buildings as Man Is Held on Arson Suspicion

Three wildfires burning around Spokane have destroyed at least 700 buildings and forced roughly 67,000 people from their homes, in what Washington’s governor has called probably the worst natural disaster in the city’s history.

Police arrested a 37-year-old Spokane man on Monday on suspicion of first-degree arson in connection with one of the three fires. He is being held on a $1 million bond and was due in court on Tuesday.

The scale

The fires began on Saturday and had burned around 16 square miles by Monday. None was contained; containment figures are published on Inciweb. Officials said more than 700 structures were destroyed and about 400 more had not yet been assessed, with roughly 10,000 further buildings considered at risk.

Evacuations covered close to a quarter of the residents of Washington’s second-largest city, and included businesses, the regional Veterans Affairs hospital campus and other healthcare facilities. Evacuees were sheltering at the Spokane Convention Center and a Red Cross site. No deaths or injuries had been reported as of Monday.

In the Balboa neighbourhood, whole residential blocks burned. In places only brick chimneys were left standing. Governor Bob Ferguson described neighbourhoods inside the city as largely wiped out.

The arrest

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office said Aaron F. Farinacci was arrested at his home without incident and booked in connection with the Old Trails Fire, the largest of the three, which started on Saturday northwest of downtown and jumped the Spokane River into residential areas.

Sheriff John Nowels said a tip from a member of the public led officers to him, and that he was questioned and released before being arrested later. Farinacci has not entered a plea, and it was not immediately clear whether he had a lawyer able to speak for him. The allegation has not been tested in court.

Authorities have not stated a cause for the other two fires, which remain under investigation.

Why these fires did so much damage

Fire officials said the blazes are not unusually large by the standards of recent Western wildfires. What made them destructive is where they burned: the wildland-urban interface, where housing sits against or inside wild vegetation. High winds, high temperatures and dry ground carried fire into streets rather than across open country. Southern Europe has faced the same combination this summer, with evacuations across France and Spain.