Spokane's Wildfires Could Become Washington's Costliest Insured Loss as the Accused Arsonist Faces Arraignment

Five days after wind-driven flames tore through northwest Spokane County, the Old Trails, Autumn Lane and Fairview fires are still burning, and Thursday brought two developments that reframed the disaster's scale. Aaron Farinacci, the 37-year-old accused of setting the Old Trails Fire, was scheduled for arraignment on a first-degree arson charge. Separately, reinsurance broker Gallagher Re warned the fire could become the costliest insured wildfire loss in Washington state history, a designation that would place a residential Spokane neighborhood fire ahead of far larger rural burns the state has weathered in past seasons. More than 65,000 people remain displaced, close to 850 homes and other structures have burned across the three-fire complex, and combined acreage is holding just above 10,000. Containment numbers reported by local and national outlets Thursday did not agree with one another, a reminder of how fluid conditions still are on the ground nearly a week into the emergency.

Containment Crews Report Progress, Though Fire-by-Fire Numbers Diverge

Fire officials say crews have made "significant progress" on containment lines around all three fires, according to KIRO 7. But exactly which fire is furthest behind depends on which Thursday report you read. Newsweek and FOX Weather both reported the Old Trails Fire trailing at just 5% contained Thursday, with Autumn Lane and Fairview each at 13%. A Wednesday-evening update carried by The Spokesman-Review and echoed by KIRO 7 had the numbers reversed, with Fairview lagging at 5% and Old Trails and Autumn Lane each at 13%.

The discrepancy is not necessarily an error on any single outlet's part. Containment figures on active fire complexes are recalculated roughly every twelve hours as crews walk and map new line, and a swing from 5% to 13% on any one fire is well within a single operational period on a wind-driven burn. What it means for residents is that no single Thursday number should be treated as final. Acreage estimates carried the same kind of noise: the Spokesman-Review put combined burned area at 10,436 acres, down slightly from an earlier 10,546-acre figure, while KIRO 7's breakdown of 3,574 acres for Old Trails, 5,870 for Autumn Lane and 992 for Fairview lands almost exactly on the same total. The acreage estimates, unlike the containment percentages, actually agree across sources, which suggests the mapped perimeter is more settled than the percentage-contained figure crews are still refining fire by fire.

Tens of Thousands Remain Displaced Across Three Shelters

FOX Weather put the number forced from their homes at more than 65,000, while KIRO 7 cited a figure of 67,000, both describing the same Level 3 "Go Now" evacuation zones covering northwest Spokane, Riverside State Park and the West Plains. More than 1,000 homes remain under active evacuation orders. Spokane County has opened shelters at the Spokane Convention Center for Old Trails evacuees, Northwood Middle School for those fleeing the Fairview Fire, and Jenkins High School in Chewelah for Stevens County residents displaced by fires burning north of the main complex, according to KIRO 7. Splitting shelter assignments by fire, rather than housing all evacuees in one location, has let county emergency management route people closer to their home neighborhoods and reduces the odds any single shelter is overwhelmed if a new evacuation order is issued overnight.

The Spokane VA Medical Center evacuated patients to area hospitals and shelters as flames approached, FOX Weather reported. Statewide, more than 5,000 fire personnel are responding to 15 active fires, with roughly 1,400 firefighters working the Spokane complex directly as of Thursday morning and reinforcements expected to bring that number to about 2,000 by the weekend. That buildup matters against the forecast described below: crews are being staged ahead of worsening fire weather, not simply replacing exhausted personnel, which is typically a sign officials expect conditions to get harder before they get easier.

A Neighbor's 911 Call Led Investigators to Aaron Farinacci

Investigators say Farinacci was arrested two days after the Old Trails Fire ignited, taken into custody at his Spokane apartment carrying cigarettes, a butane lighter and waterproof matches, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting. Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels credited an alert resident with the quick arrest. "As it happens in so many critical cases, it was citizens who were paying attention to their surroundings, being aware, and willing to step up and say something," Nowels said, in remarks reported by KOMO News.

Farinacci has a prior manslaughter conviction from 2010 in Arizona, where he served more than a decade in prison for killing his father, KOMO reported. Investigators have said he was also questioned about earlier 2025 fires in the area, per OPB, though no charges related to those fires have been filed. Both KOMO and a FOX 23 report carrying the same wire account were explicit that there is "no evidence linking Farinacci to the two other Spokane-area wildfires." Autumn Lane and Fairview remain separate, unsolved investigations, a distinction worth holding onto amid the coverage: Thursday's court date resolves the origin question for only one of the three fires burning simultaneously around Spokane, and Sheriff Nowels has said only that at least one of the three appears to have started accidentally, without specifying which.

Farinacci Faces Arraignment on a First-Degree Arson Charge

Farinacci was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday afternoon on a first-degree arson charge tied specifically to the Old Trails Fire, with KOMO and OPB both reporting he was expected to enter a plea at that hearing. He is represented by court-appointed public defender Colin Charbonneau, according to OPB, who did not comment ahead of the hearing. A judge set bail at $1 million at Farinacci's first court appearance earlier in the week, a figure that reflects both the scale of property loss and Farinacci's prior manslaughter conviction.

Neither outlet's Thursday reporting captured the actual outcome of the arraignment by the time of publication, meaning the plea itself, and any statement from the Spokane County Prosecutor's Office, was not yet public as this article was reported. The case is likely to move slowly regardless of the plea entered Thursday. First-degree arson causing this scale of property loss typically triggers a lengthy pretrial process involving forensic fire-cause testimony, and prosecutors have given no indication of a trial date. With several hundred families now displaced or without a home to return to, the criminal case is likely to be only the first legal proceeding to come out of the Old Trails Fire, well ahead of any insurance or civil disputes that a loss of this size tends to generate.

Insurers Warn the Old Trails Fire Could Be Washington's Costliest Wildfire Loss

Reinsurance broker Gallagher Re said Thursday the Spokane fires are on track to produce insured losses of "at least hundreds of millions of dollars, with a plausible chance of becoming a billion-dollar industry loss event," according to Reinsurance News. The firm said the event is expected to rank among the costliest wildfires for the insurance industry in the state's history, "if not the costliest," though it did not publish a specific dollar comparison to prior Washington fire seasons.

Gallagher Re's estimate is built on property counts, not just acreage. Officials have confirmed more than 700 structures destroyed and said the final tally could approach 1,100 based on aerial imagery still being reviewed, the firm noted. That property-driven math is what separates this fire from larger but more rural Washington burns of past years. The Old Trails Fire chewed through dense residential neighborhoods in northwest Spokane rather than open timberland, which is why a complex smaller in total acreage than some past state fires is nonetheless positioned to become the most expensive one insurers have ever paid out on here. A larger rural fire can burn across far more acreage and still cost insurers less overall, if what it mostly consumes is forest rather than homes and businesses. Gallagher Re also pointed to an unusually warm, dry 2025-26 winter, with below-normal snowpack and reduced soil moisture, as the meteorological setup that primed the region's vegetation to burn this hard and this fast so early in the season.

More Fire Weather Is Forecast as Crews Race the Clock

The National Weather Service in Spokane issued a Fire Weather Watch for Friday into Saturday, warning of southwest winds gusting to 25 mph, temperatures climbing into the 90s and 100s, and relative humidity as low as 10%. "A combination of temperatures reaching 90-100°F, very low humidity, and gusty winds will create an environment where new or existing fires can spread rapidly," the agency said, in a forecast reported by Newsweek. Air quality across Spokane and the surrounding region remains "very unhealthy" under the current smoke load, Newsweek reported, and officials have cautioned that some evacuated neighborhoods could remain off-limits for weeks even after fire lines hold.

That forecast lands at an awkward moment for containment crews who, on every account, still have the bulk of all three fire perimeters unsecured, with every reported figure Thursday still in the single digits or low teens. With roughly 2,000 firefighters expected on scene by the weekend, the coming 48 hours of hot, dry wind will be the clearest test yet of whether this week's containment gains hold or reverse, and whether crews can avoid having to cut a new line somewhere else on the perimeter. For the tens of thousands of evacuees waiting on word about their homes, the forecast means the earliest realistic return dates likely slide further out, not closer in.