Old Trails Fire: Evacuations Widely Downgraded as Containment Climbs Above 60%

A fast-moving wildfire, now named the Old Trails Fire, broke out just before noon on Saturday, August 1, 2026, west of Spokane, Washington, near Old Trails Road and West Euclid Road. Driven by wind gusts reported between 35 and 50 mph and single-digit humidity, the fire grew rapidly through the afternoon, jumped the Spokane River, and pushed into Riverside State Park and neighborhoods in northwest Spokane. Over more than two weeks of firefighting, it grew to a peak of roughly 3,574 acres before settling at 3,176 acres, now 98% contained. Two related fires ignited the same day: the Fairview Fire, which settled at 992 acres and is now fully contained at 100%, and the Autumn Lane Fire, the largest of the three at roughly 5,764 acres and now 97% contained. Together, the three were tracked throughout the incident as the Spokane Complex Fire. Spokane County Fire District 3 Fire Chief Cody Rohrbach said the majority of the 921 damaged or destroyed structures were lost in the Old Trails Fire alone (694 structures), with 168 lost to the Autumn Lane Fire and 59 to the Fairview Fire — many of them homes in the Indian Trail and Five Mile Prairie neighborhoods, where residents returning to check on their properties found blocks of homes burned down to their foundations.

Standing in front of the charred remains of his home on West Tiffany Avenue, one resident told The Spokesman-Review, "It's gone, all gone." Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown described the disaster as the worst her region has faced. Washington Governor Bob Ferguson activated the Washington National Guard, declared a statewide burn ban, and requested federal emergency funding, which President Trump subsequently approved via FEMA. Statewide, dozens of major fires have burned well over a quarter-million acres this season, as Washington faces its worst wildfire season in more than 30 years. Suppression costs for the Spokane Complex Fire have climbed with the length of the campaign: an estimated $17.9 million for Old Trails and roughly $13 million for Autumn Lane, according to federal incident-cost tracking.

At the peak of the response, Level 3 "Go Now" evacuation orders — the highest level, meaning leave immediately due to life-threatening conditions — covered large parts of northwest Spokane, Airway Heights, and Suncrest, with roughly 65,000 people under evacuation orders. The Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center fully evacuated its patients to area shelters. A Red Cross shelter at the Spokane Convention Center sheltered hundreds of families overnight. An animal shelter operated at the Barking Lot in Spokane Valley. The Spokane County Sheriff's Office cleared all missing-person reports early in the response, confirming no deaths or injuries were tied to any of the three fires — a status that has held through full containment. Evacuation levels were downgraded in stages as containment climbed through August, and officials confirmed all remaining evacuation orders had been lifted once containment across the complex reached the high-90s percent range. Officials continued to caution returning residents to be careful of debris, ash, and downed hazards as they moved back into affected neighborhoods.

Why the Fire Grew So Fast

Under Red Flag conditions, flames can climb into the tree canopy and travel with the wind — a "crown run" — far faster than ground crews or aircraft can respond to.

Hours before the Old Trails Fire started, the National Weather Service issued a "Particularly Dangerous Situation" (PDS) Red Flag Warning across Central and Eastern Washington — a designation reserved for the single most extreme fire-weather setups, and one officials said had never been issued in the state before. A strong cold front swept through the Inland Northwest on August 1, bringing historically strong, gusty winds and very low humidity on top of already dry vegetation.

Under those conditions, a spark can turn into a fast-moving, wind-driven fire within minutes rather than hours — and in this case, investigators say the spark was deliberate. Court documents show suspect Aaron Farinacci researched weather conditions using an app for roughly two weeks beforehand, specifically targeting a day with high winds, low humidity, and high heat, and had assembled a delayed-ignition device to start the blaze. Observers on scene described the fire making sustained "crown runs," meaning flames were racing through treetops rather than creeping along the ground, which allows a fire to outrun typical containment efforts and cross natural barriers like a river. All three fires in the complex are now formally listed with a human cause in federal incident data.

Washington's State of Emergency and Burn Ban

Washington Governor Bob Ferguson declared a state of emergency and imposed a statewide burn ban running through September 30, 2026, activating members of the Washington National Guard and authorizing the state to draw on the Emergency Management Assistance Compact for additional out-of-state firefighting resources. The Washington State Fire Marshal's Office mobilized more than a dozen task forces, and Washington State Patrol authorized state fire mobilization within roughly 90 minutes of the fire's start.

Fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters were assigned to slow the fire's spread in its early days, though officials warned aircraft effectiveness would be limited by the same high winds driving the fire. President Trump subsequently approved a FEMA Fire Management Assistance Grant covering the Autumn Lane and Fairview fires. Zoomed out, this fire was part of a brutal wider season: Washington and Oregon experienced their worst wildfire season in more than 30 years, with well over 2 million acres burned statewide, and firefighting resources freed up from the now-contained Spokane Complex Fire have since been redirected to other active incidents around the state.

What Level 1, 2, and 3 Evacuations Actually Mean

These three levels are used by most Western U.S. counties, including Spokane County, and the wording is intentionally blunt: a Level 3 order is not a suggestion, and "this may be your only notice" language — used in the actual alerts sent for the Old Trails Fire — means responders may not have the resources to issue a second warning before conditions become unsurvivable.

The Arson Case and How the Fires Were Finally Contained

The Autumn Lane Fire remained the largest of the three at roughly 5,764 acres and reached 97% containment; Old Trails (3,176 acres) reached 98%, and Fairview (992 acres) was the first to hit full containment at 100%. Combined, the Spokane Complex Fire burned just under 10,000 acres. California Interagency Incident Management Team 7 led the federally coordinated response, with more than 1,700 firefighters from multiple agencies and jurisdictions deployed at points during the response — a scale that drew international news coverage. As containment reached the high-90s and 100% across the three fires, remaining personnel were reassigned to other large fires still burning elsewhere in Washington, while utility crews and road crews continued repairing infrastructure and removing hazard trees throughout the burn scars.

Spokane County prosecutors have charged 37-year-old Aaron Farinacci with five counts of first-degree arson, up from the single count tied to the Old Trails Fire he was originally arrested for. Court documents say Farinacci confessed to detectives that he researched and planned the Old Trails Fire roughly two weeks in advance, studying a well-known arsonist and using a weather app to target a day with extreme fire conditions before assembling a delayed-ignition device. He also admitted to setting approximately 25 other fires since July 2025 near his apartment along the Spokane River and Centennial Trail; detectives were able to corroborate four of them, which became the basis for his additional charges: the Aubrey White Fire (July 6, 2025, more than 1,200 acres burned near the Centennial Trail), the TJ Meenach Fire (July 8, 2025), the Fort George Fire, and the Indian Bluff Fire. A judge doubled his bond to $2 million, and his arraignment remains on hold while the court completes a mental competency evaluation his defense requested — a process officials said could take about a month. Court records also surfaced that Farinacci was convicted of manslaughter in Arizona in 2010, for killing his father during an argument, and served more than a decade in prison before his release. Investigators have not linked Farinacci to the separate Autumn Lane or Fairview fires, whose causes are listed as human but remain under investigation.

Beyond Spokane, search interest also spiked during the incident for the Wells Road Fire near Malden and the Palouse River Fire near Colfax, both in Whitman County, as well as other regional fires driven by the same pattern of dry fuels, low humidity, and strong wind that made the first week of August especially dangerous across the Inland Northwest. If you're tracking fire activity across the broader region rather than just Spokane, it's worth continuing to monitor these and any newly reported fires, since the underlying conditions that fueled the Spokane Complex Fire remain in place for the rest of the season.

What to Do If You're Returning to a Burn-Affected Area

With evacuation orders lifted, the focus for returning residents shifts from evacuation speed to safe re-entry around ash, debris, and damaged infrastructure.

• ✓Be cautious around ash and debris — avoid skin contact and inhalation, use N95, NIOSH, or P100 masks, and don't assume utilities are restored until confirmed by the utility provider.
• ✓Watch for hazard trees — fire-weakened trees can fall for weeks or months after a burn, especially in wind; road and utility crews are still clearing them throughout the burn scar.
• ✓Sign up for local emergency alerts if you haven't already — most counties, including Spokane, offer free text/email evacuation alerts tied to your address, useful for any future fire activity.
• ✓Check on neighbors who may need help — elderly residents, people without vehicles, and those with mobility limitations, especially now that more people are returning to fire-damaged areas.
• ✓Use spokanecommunityresources.org for a full list of organizations helping residents who lost homes or property in the fires.
• ✗Don't enter areas still marked as active work zones for hazard-tree removal or utility repair, even though evacuation orders have lifted.
• ✗Don't rely on acreage or containment numbers from any single source, including this article, for a new or nearby fire — cross-check with official channels below, since figures can lag real conditions by hours.

Where to Get Live Updates

For real-time acreage, containment, and evacuation zone boundaries on this or any new fire activity in the region, use official and local sources rather than any single news article, including this one:

• Spokane County's official evacuation map — the authoritative source for current Level 1/2/3 zone boundaries.
• Washington State Department of Natural Resources wildfire dashboard — statewide fire activity, acreage, and containment updates.
• InciWeb (inciweb.wildfire.gov) — the federal incident information system used for significant wildfires.
• Local broadcasters — KREM 2, KHQ, and The Spokesman-Review provided rolling, on-the-ground coverage throughout the incident and remain the fastest source for any new fire developments.
• AirNow.gov — for current air quality and smoke impact, including areas outside any active fire perimeter.

We'll update this article if there are further developments in the Farinacci case or if any of the three fires shows renewed activity. If you have a confirmed update from an official source, the fastest way to verify a change is to check it against Spokane County's own evacuation map before acting on it.