The Guy Arrested for the Spokane Fire Has Been Investigated Before for ... Aw, You Guessed It

The suspect who torched hundreds of homes in the Eastern Washington town of Spokane had been, everybody now — on the radar — of investigators before.

According to the sheriff of Spokane County, the man who was arrested with a fanny pack full of waterproof matches, a butane lighter, and ciggies over the weekend, four miles away from the ignition point of the Spokane fire, had been investigated not once, but twice in 2025 for — wait for it — arson.

Oh, is that all? No, actually, it is not all. At all.

Indeed, the suspect, Aaron Farinacci, 37, was convicted of killing his father while living in Arizona and, more importantly in regard to this conflagration, had already been investigated twice for arson in Spokane last year.

We're adults and care about civil rights and due process, which is why we wonder if the reason he wasn't detained for the arsons for which he was investigated last year was because there wasn't enough evidence. It's a good question to which we have no answer at this point. We may deduce that's the case, but I'm giving even odds that the reason he wasn't locked up and the key thrown away was because the district attorney didn't feel like it.

Speaking of evidence, circumstantial evidence is not the only kind of evidence that exists in this latest case. According to Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels, the alleged firebug was seen by an eyewitness "within ten square meters" of the ignition point of the fire. The witness called 911 to report the guy, whom he later identified in a lineup. See his interview below.

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And there are other issues at play here.

For example, maybe spending a decade in prison for killing your dad, pointing a gun at your mom, and shooting yourself in one incident makes you a little weird. So weird that you begin to manifest your weirdism by ...setting fires? Or, perhaps he was a mental case the entire time.

Funny you should ask. According to news reports, our alleged arsonist was a complete mental case growing up and needed regular psychiatric care. According to KIRO 7 News, "A judge found [Farinacci] was mentally fit to assist in his own defense, but his lawyer [continued] to raise questions about mental health, saying he'd been hospitalized multiple times for psychiatric treatment."

Arizona prosecutors gave him a reduced second-degree manslaughter charge and, instead of spending his life in prison, he was given the ten-year sentence. His Arizona probation ended in early 2024.

However, we learn that the nutball who shot his dad "never completed a mental health evaluation." Can we get some minders for the people whose jobs it is to watch psychotic mental cases?

Why did 400 Spokane families lose their homes in what they're calling the Old Trails Fire because a mental case wasn't being watched by caring adults in a psychiatric facility?

By the way, my favorite part of the press conference from Tuesday (see it below) is the part when Sheriff Nowels says, in response to a question by a reporter, that "we have no documented history of intentional fire setting" right before he says that the number one suspect in this latest case was picked up twice last year for being a suspect in other arsons.

And because the sheriff seems like a nice guy, I've got a Pro Tip for him: Remember, it's Who's on First, What's on Second, and I Don't Know on Third. Got it?

Anyway, the sheriff and all law enforcement are also very concerned about people flying non-governmental drones around the fire, and he is threatening charges against anyone caught doing so that may carry $100,000 in fines.

Rhetorical question: Would law enforcement that didn't pursue more information into a suspected arsonist who was picked up and questioned twice about two different fires just a few months ago drop everything to go after drone operators? The world awaits the answer.

Seriously, however, I know drones can get in the way of firefighters, and my answer to that is not to wring your hands, cease firefighter flights, as they claimed to do in the past couple of days, or complain. The answer is to zap those nasty bastards with the anti-drone tech you guys have or could borrow from the nearby military or the feds helping you in this case — if the drones are really stopping you from doing your jobs.

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