SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A man charged with intentionally setting a wildfire that has destroyed hundreds of buildings in and around Washington state's second-largest city was questioned by law enforcement during two fire investigations last year, though he wasn't charged in either, court documents show.

Aaron F. Farinacci of Spokane was arrested Monday and booked on suspicion of first-degree arson in connection with the Old Trails Fire, the biggest of three blazes that have destroyed at least 700 buildings and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes. According to court records, he denied setting the fire. His bond was set at $1 million.

The other two fires burning around Spokane were also started by humans, though not necessarily intentionally, investigators said Tuesday. The exact cause remains under investigation.

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(MORE: Wildfire smoke hits Seattle, Portland with unhealthy air)

No deaths have been reported and cooler, calmer weather aided firefighters again Tuesday. Only one of the three fires — the Autumn Lane fire — grew. But hotter, drier and windier conditions are expected later in the week.

Farinacci, 37, served about a decade in prison after killing his father in Arizona in 2010. Last year, authorities questioned him in two fire-related cases in Spokane, according to a probable cause statement filed in Spokane County Superior Court.

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One involved several “bus-sized” fires in an area near Farinacci's apartment in July 2025, police records in that case say. The other involved a wildfire in a state park that prompted evacuation notices the following month. In neither case was he arrested.

(MORE: Too close for comfort - flames engulf Spokane roads)

A tip leads to an arrest

On Saturday, Paul Child, 64, was driving with his grandson along some railroad tracks in his rural neighborhood northwest of Spokane. He saw a man standing and looking toward nearby trees. About 10 minutes later, as they were returning home, the man was still there.

“He was bent over in the brush, acting nervous," Child told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "You get the feeling this guy’s up to something.”

“No longer than 10 minutes after I got home, my daughter says, ‘There’s a fire,’” Child recalled. “My first words were, ‘That SOB started a fire!’ It was the exact spot where he was standing.”

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Child’s daughter called 911 and he drove back to the spot where he'd seen the man, sheriff’s detective Michael Drapeau wrote in the probable cause statement. He gave a police officer a description of the man he had seen — bald, white, wearing a green shirt and carrying a backpack.

A responding sheriff’s deputy saw a man matching that description walking more than 1 mile away and detained him. Another deputy also responded, and Child showed up to identify the person in custody — Farinacci — as the one he had seen in the area of the fire, the document states.

Farinacci had a backpack and a fanny pack, in which he had a pack of cigarettes, waterproof matches and a butane lighter, it says. He told the deputies he didn’t start the fire and he denied having been in the area where it started. He was wearing a green T-shirt that read, “who needs luck I have charm,” the detective wrote.

The deputies were unaware of Farinacci’s prior fire-related contacts and the cause of the Old Trails Fire hadn’t been determined yet, so they released him to continue working on evacuation efforts, Drapeau wrote.

But the following day, a wildland fire investigator ruled out other possible causes, including sparks from electric wires or passing trains, and police arrested Farinacci on Monday.

“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 that led to the relatively quick apprehension of Mr. Farinacci,” Sheriff John Nowels told reporters.

Child credited the heroic work of police and firefighters responding to the disaster, and said he hopes people who lost homes “can get some kind of peace of mind or a little bit of comfort” from the arrest.

Farinacci appeared in court Tuesday via video link from the jail and was represented by Colin Charbonneau, director of the Spokane County public defender’s office. A judge set his arraignment for Thursday.

Returning to destroyed homes

The Old Trails Fire began Saturday northwest of downtown Spokane and eventually jumped the Spokane River and tore through neighborhoods.

The three fires had burned about 16 square miles by early Wednesday. After the weekend winds died down and shifted, sending smoke across the western part of the state, including the Seattle area, firefighting conditions were expected to worsen again Wednesday, with winds picking up and temperatures expected to reach the 90s, said Benjamin Cossel, a spokesperson for the fire incident management team.

On Monday, some residents who had to flee blazes over the weekend returned to find homes that had been burned to the ground. In some cases, only chimneys were left standing.

(MORE: What really protects you from wildfire smoke)

“There’s nothing to save,” Miriam Sim, 76, said as she and her husband, Daniel Sim, surveyed the ruins of the home where they had lived since 2005.

“At our age, do we want to rebuild?” her husband asked.

In one Spokane neighborhood, blackened vehicles, a boat twisted by the heat and melted plastic recycling bins remained. Across the street, lawns were still green and houses were spared, as residents continued to run hoses or sprinklers to water their properties.

“Hundreds of people have completely lost their homes and farms, and many are prohibited from returning to their homes or neighborhoods as crews continue to extinguish smoldering embers,” the state's congressional delegation wrote Monday in asking President Donald Trump to approve an expedited emergency declaration, which he did.

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More than 1,000 firefighters, many from out of state, arrived by Monday, and that number was expected to double in the next few days.

The fires were among dozens across the Western U.S. stretching the ability of federal, state and local agencies to fight them. At least 390 square miles has burned across Washington, which has contended with severe drought and a paltry snowpack.

Drone activity a serious concern

On Monday afternoon, during the hottest part of the day, authorities had to ground all of their firefighting aircraft for nearly two hours due to repeated airspace incursions by privately operated drones, said Tom Stokesberry, spokesperson for the critical incident team managing the fire response.

Federal authorities on Tuesday granted a law enforcement task force the authority to down, by means of electronic disruption, any drones that cross into restricted airspace, he said.

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In one neighborhood, blackened vehicles, a boat twisted by the heat and melted plastic recycling bins remained. Across the street, lawns were still green and houses were spared, as residents continued to run hoses or sprinklers to water their properties.

Some residents who had to flee blazes returned to find only chimneys left standing.

“There’s nothing to save,” Miriam Sim, 76, said as she and her husband, Daniel Sim, surveyed the ruins of the home where they had lived since 2005.