SPOKANE, Wash. — A 37-year-old man with a history of pure evil is behind bars after authorities say he deliberately set the Old Trails Fire that reduced hundreds of homes to rubble and forced tens of thousands of terrified residents to flee for their lives.
Aaron Farinacci was arrested Monday on suspicion of first-degree arson. Investigators say witnesses spotted him kneeling in the grass near the exact ignition point of the blaze north of Spokane. When officers later caught up with him, he was carrying waterproof matches and a butane lighter. The fire, which erupted Saturday, destroyed roughly 640 to 700 structures, most of them family homes, and triggered evacuations for as many as 65,000 people.
This is the same Aaron Farinacci who, as a 21-year-old in Mesa, Arizona, in 2010, gunned down his own father after the older man simply asked him to wash the dishes. He then pointed the weapon at his mother before turning it on himself and surviving.
Originally charged with first-degree murder, the charge was reduced and he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and aggravated assault, receiving a 12-year prison sentence. Somehow, years later, he was free to walk the streets of Spokane County.
Sheriff John Nowels confirmed Farinacci had previous contacts with law enforcement over “arson-related behavior.” On the day the fire started, police actually stopped and questioned him a short distance from the origin point, then let him go so they could focus on fighting the growing inferno. It took vigilant citizens who refused to look the other way to help investigators connect the dots and put him in custody on a $1 million bond.
Prosecutor Preston McCollam credited ordinary neighbors who reported suspicious activity. “This case was cracked by vigilant citizens,” he said.
The scale of destruction is staggering. Entire neighborhoods north of the city were wiped out in a matter of hours as the wind-driven flames jumped roads and the Spokane River. Families who worked their whole lives to build something now stare at piles of ash.
How does a man who murdered his father in cold blood over household chores end up free, armed with fire-starting materials, next to tens of thousands of homes? That is the question Americans are asking, and they deserve answers.
Looking at the pattern of extreme, inexplicable violence, killing his own father over dishes, then allegedly lighting a fire that erased hundreds of lives’ work in a single day, some will look at this individual and say he seems like a demon child. The sheer lack of human restraint on display is hard to explain any other way.
Farinacci is scheduled to appear in court as the investigation continues. No connection has been made to the other wildfires burning in the Spokane area.
The families left homeless by this alleged act of pure destruction are waiting for justice. And a lot of Americans are wondering how many more times the system will fail before it finally puts predators like this away for good.
