The Old Trails Fire was not the first time accused arsonist Aaron Farinacci sought to set Spokane on fire. Court documents say Farinacci admitted to setting 25 different fires since July 2025 — four of which a Spokane County Sheriff’s detective has been able to corroborate.
“He feels fire is powerful, beautiful, and that things that go through fire experience a kind of rebirth,” Det. Michael Drapeau wrote in a document.
With this information, Spokane County Judge Jeremy Schmidt found probable cause during a Thursday arraignment to add four additional first-degree arson charges against Farinacci.
Farinacci, dressed in a pale green uniform, appeared via video from Spokane County Jail. Sitting next to him was his attorney Colin Charbonneau, the director of the Spokane County Public Defender’s Office.
Farinacci is accused of starting the Old Trails fire, one of three fires since Saturday that have ravaged the Spokane area. Altogether, they have displaced over 67,000 people and destroyed an estimated 800 structures.
The four additional arson counts are for the Aubrey White fire and Copper River, Meenach fire in July 2025, and the Equestrian fire in August 2025. As recently as July 24, Farinacci told investigators, he started a fire on Indian Bluff.
Spokane County Prosecutor Preston McCollam, who sat next to Charbonneau, asked the court to increase Farinacci’s bond to $2 million, “given the gravity of these charges, given the addition of four separate arson counts.”
Charbonneau did not object.
“The court does find that there is a significant risk to community safety, as well as the potential for a violent offense and future failure to appear,” Schmidt said, concluding that the amount requested was “appropriate.”
While being interviewed in custody, Farinacci said he always carried marijuana or cigarettes as an alibi for having a lighter or matches, court documents say. He had also researched a serial arsonist named John Leonard Orr — an arson investigator who secretly set as many as 2,000 fires until getting caught in 1991 — and learned to make a “time-delay device” for starting a wildland fire, according to documents.
Farinacci was arrested Monday evening on suspicion of first-degree arson.
Charbonneau requested a competency evaluation for Farinacci, which would determine if the defendant is legally competent to stand trial.
Schmidt said he expects to approve the evaluation, which would pause the case while it’s conducted. But if that isn’t signed, court rules would require the case to come back for arraignment within 24 hours.
“We’ll have those documents to you this afternoon,” Charbonneau told Schmidt.
