Today's headlines:
- Spokane County deputies arrest man suspected of starting Spokane's Old Trails wildfires.
- Today is Primary Election day in Washington state. Where to return your ballot today.
- Spokane’s fire leaders detail the impact on more than structures lost.
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The man suspected of starting Spokane’s Old Trails fire has been arrested.
Sheriff John Nowels says investigators took 37-year-old Aaron Farinacci into custody yesterday.
Nowels says a citizen driving in the area where the fire started on Saturday noticed a man standing on the side of the road looking up into the trees.
“About 10 minutes later as he was coming back through the area he noticed the male was bending down near some grass. At that point the male stood up and looked very nervous according to our citizen witness. At that point the male walked away," Nowels said.
Nowels says the citizen contacted Airway Heights police and gave them a description. It was early in the fire and officers were busy getting people out, but they went later that day to question Farinacci. That began the investigation that led to Monday’s arrest.
Nowels says Farinacci, for now, faces one charge of first-degree arson. He is from Arizona, where he was once convicted of manslaughter. He’s in the Spokane County jail on a million dollar bond.
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Spokane County authorities say a few people are still unaccounted for in relation to last weekend’s wildfires.
Sheriff John Nowels told reporters yesterday the county took 300 911 calls related to the fire. During a Monday press briefing, he said investigators making follow up calls had been able to account for all but 14.
“I do not want people to think that we have 14 missing people. These are people who may have called for help or for help evacuating and many of them likely did get evacuated. With poor cell phone coverage, people’s cell phone batteries die or they get to some place where they do find shelter and we haven’t been able to reach them by phone," he said.
Nowels asks people who have friends or loved ones who they haven’t been able to contact to call Crime Check and county officials will try to follow up.
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Today is primary Election Day in Washington.
If you haven’t yet returned your ballot, Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton advises you not to drop it into a U.S. mailbox. She says there’s no guarantee it will be postmarked with today’s date.
“What we recommend is, especially on Tuesday, Election Day, take it into a post office, go to the counter and ask for a hand cancellation. That will ensure that you have a postmark with a correct date on it," Dalton said.
The ballots are due back by tonight at 8 p.m.
You can also deposit your ballot in a county ballot drop box or take it directly to your county elections office.
That’s one of the county’s two voter service centers. The other is at CenterPlace in Spokane Valley, which will also accept ballots until 8 pm.
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Spokane County has an aquifer protection area and now the West Plains may form one too.
West Plains voters will be asked today to tax themselves to create and maintain an organization devoted to protecting the quality of the West Plains aquifer.
Ben Brattebo from Spokane County’s water program says property owners would pay up to a dollar-and-a-quarter a month if they pull water from the aquifer. Those who dispose of their sewage in a septic tank would pay another dollar-and-a-quarter a month.
“The big topic right now in the community for the West Plains is PFAS contamination. I suspect we would use some of the funding towards PFAS. But generally we don't have a specific plan of how we want to use this. We want to have funding available to put together a plan, work with the cities on the West Plains to work with them to see what their priorities are," Brattebo said.
One homeowner whose well is contaminated with PFAS wonders if the county has a Plan B if this ballot measure fails. We’ll continue to follow it.
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The head of the team fighting Spokane’s wildfires says more than 700 structures have burned and there may be more. Tom Clemo is an incident commander for the California Interagency Incident Management Team 7.
Tom Clemo: We've had aerial flyovers this morning and last night late to validate some of those losses, but there's still large question marks about the total loss. It's very difficult to try to figure that out in this day and age.
"We have flights that will go over it with satellites today to try to validate an additional 1,100 areas that are question marks about damage and loss to either structures or outbuildings, both residential and commercial, within the fire's footprints," he shared.
Tom Clemo from California Interagency Incident Management Team 7 spoke yesterday at a press briefing at Mount Spokane High School. His message was echoed by Major General Gent Welsh, the adjutant general for Washington’s state military department.
"So I'll just say I went out for a drive last night and I went up into a lot of the burned areas and I want to tell you I've been to a lot of places around the world, not so good places around the world, and I can tell you today that that's a war zone when you finally get in there and you finally look at the devastation and the damage and it's going to be pretty interesting as people go in there and to just grapple with the damage and grapple with the fact that their lives are forever changed. Some of these folks may not recover. Some of those folks may not rebuild in there and it's going to continue to be, I would say, a very significant emotional event for this community long term," Major Welsh said.
"Again, we are still in the fight. There's still a lot of stuff smoking. There's still a lot of danger. There's going to be a lot of questions about when can we get back. It's going to take some time. You heard the state leadership talk about patience," he added.
"It's going to take some patience."
Crews are battling the fire on one front. Governor Bob Ferguson and state officials are battling it on the bureaucratic front. Ferguson says the state has formally asked the federal government for an emergency declaration to start federal aid flowing to the state.
"I do want to just briefly update that request for direct federal assistance and a granting of emergency that pertains not just to Spokane. It’s multiple counties and three tribes, and I don't think I mentioned that yesterday, and so I'm going to read those off now. So the six counties that we are requesting that declaration of emergency and that direct federal assistance, this is in the short term, are the following counties, Spokane, Stevens, Chelan, Okanagan, Yakima, and Ferry. Spokane, Stevens, Chelan, Okanagan, Yakima, and Ferry, and three tribal nations, Spokane, Colville, and Yakima," Gov. Ferguson said.
"I'll be leaving from here to actually meet with leadership from the Colville Nation, you know, so that we understand that this fire is impacting many, many communities across our state, and that's why that request includes those six counties and those three tribes."
Ferguson says federal aid would help the state fund search and rescue crews, remove debris, and buy things such as medical supplies, temporary shelters, and generators.
Crews are making progress in some places, for example, at the Fairview fire northeast of Spokane. The Autumn Lane fire continues to spread, from about 34-hundred acres a day or two ago to 5,900 yesterday. Incident Commander Tom Clemo says there’s a lot of work to do.
"The next week or so are going to be extremely difficult as we start to grasp the overwhelming amount of damage that has been done in this community and try to turn the corner and help you recover.
It's going to take a lot of effort, a lot of coordination, and a lot of patience, frankly. Our expectation is over the next few days as we receive resources from all over the country that we place them in the most affected neighborhoods. We meet the need of the community. We meet the need of the individuals that live here, that work here, that raise kids here. That's our expectation," he said.
Washington Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove says the Spokane fires are among 17 burning around the state. They’re consuming more than 260,000 acres. He says, overall, a half million acres have burned in Washington this summer with two months left in the summer and fall wildfire season. About five thousand people are currently on the fire lines.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting was contributed by Doug Nadvornick.
Jordy Jones hosts and Doug Nadvornick produces the podcast.
Web support is provided by Anna Gyure Havlek.
