Arson suspect arrested as wildfires rage around Spokane, Washington

SPOKANE \u2014 A man has been arrested on suspicion of deliberately starting one of three fires that have destroyed hundreds of buildings and forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes \u200bin and around Spokane.The suspect, 37-year-old Spokane resident Aaron Farinacci, was jailed on Monday on a $1 million bond for investigation of his involvement in first-degree arson, Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels said.Farinacci is accused of starting the Old Trails Fire, one of three that erupted on Saturday to the north and west \u200cof Spokane, by using matches or a lighter to ignite a roadside patch of grass, Nowels told reporters on Monday evening.The origins of the two other fires remained under investigation, he said.The three blazes together are ranked \u2060as the top firefighting priority in the U.S. as a whole. Dozens of major \u200bfires have for weeks been scorching the drought-parched Pacific Northwest, fouling the air \u2060with smoke and soot.The Spokane-area fires have blackened more than 10,000 acres on the northern fringe of the state's second city, home to about 230,000 residents.Heat and drought spread around the globeScientists say the prolonged heat and droughts driving the growth in wildfires in North America, Europe and elsewhere in recent years are largely a function of man-made global warming, mostly caused by the use of fossil fuels.At least 700 structures have gone up in flames since \u2060Saturday, mostly in residential areas, with another 400, including homes, damaged or destroyed, said Benjamin Cossel of the incident command center.Some 64,000 people were under evacuation orders on Monday, up from 4,000 a day earlier.Although no fatalities had been reported, Cossel said there was a high probability that would change, as flames spread out of wooded areas into neighborhoods and commercial areas and search and recovery expands into currently inaccessible areas.Nowels said the arson suspect was first detained on Saturday after a witness reported seeing a nervous-looking man bending down near some grass at the spot where arson investigators later determined the Old Trails Fire began.Farinacci was \u200cquestioned and released that day, but taken into custody on Monday afternoon, once investigators had obtained further evidence, Nowels said.Prosecuting \u200battorney Preston McCollam told reporters a formal case was filed and Farinacci would likely make his first court appearance on Tuesday. It was not immediately known whether Farinacci had obtained legal representation