We have been following the Spokane wildfire disaster. As of Friday, firefighters have nearly reached 100% containment for this devastating complex of 3 fires, which have burned nearly 10,000 acres and destroyed more than 800 structures since August began.
As I noted in these reports, Aaron Farinacci has been charged with arson in connection with one of the fires (Old Trails). He has admitted to starting 25 other blazes and to researching in depth how to ignite a wildfire successfully.
However, it turns out that Farinacci’s fire wasn’t the last arson attempt in Spokane. Another occurred this week.
A man has been arrested in connection with an August 8 fire near N. Havana Street and E. Rowan Avenue during a Red Flag Warning for high fire danger, Spokane County Sheriff’s Office said in a release.The fire grew to about half the size of a football field before firefighters stopped it.Deputies interviewed witnesses and gathered information about a possible suspect and a gold four-door Chrysler.Detectives then worked with DNR fire investigators, reviewed video and witness statements and identified 61-year-old Danny J. Riesberg as a suspect, SCSO said…..A criminal history check shows Riesberg was arrested in Minnesota for 1st degree arson in 1995 and later pleaded guilty in 1997 to 5th degree arson, SCSO added.
But Spokane isn’t the only region having issues with arsonists.
France has reported about 115,000 hectares burned by wildfires in 2026 as of late July. At one point, authorities said France was fighting 30 to 40 wildfires per day.
Some 115,000 hectares (284,000 acres) have burned in wildfires in France since the start of the year, “far more than anything we have seen in the past”, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said Sunday.France is currently battling 30 to 40 wildfires daily, Nunez told France 2 television.Conditions remained “very unfavourable” on major fronts, including the southwestern regions of Gironde and Landes, and in the Mediterranean Var region.A total of 2,500 firefighters, including a Swiss firefighting team, 1,500 military personnel and around 1,200 police have been deployed to Gironde, Nuñez said earlier.
It turns out, over 400 people in France were arrested on suspicion of starting a fire… with a vast majority actually being charged with arson.
French media reported on Friday that a 15-year-old has been arrested in connection with a July fire near Bordeaux airport, in the same region, that killed two firefighters.The youth, who has been placed under judicial investigation, allegedly threw away a cigarette butt that sparked the fire, local newspaper Sud Ouest reported. The Bordeaux prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The French interior ministry said 474 people have been arrested on suspicion of starting a fire, whether that be intentional or not. Of that total, 183 are younger than 18. About 70% of the people detained are suspected of arson, the ministry has previously said.
The forensic literature on arson is blunt about who is lighting these fires. Studies of arrested and referred arsonists consistently find that 54 to 90 percent have diagnosable psychiatric histories, with schizophrenia rates more than 20 times higher than the general population and substance abuse present in roughly two-thirds of cases.
Riesberg’s arson history and Farinacci’s obsessive research into fire ignition fit this profile far better than any narrative about carbon dioxide levels.
Meanwhile, it appears that France is beginning to crack down on fire-starters.
At 70 years old, this retired man from the Gironde department in southwest France was following his usual routine. Once again, as he often did, he gathered papers and waste to burn them in his garden. But within minutes, the flames got out of control. The fire was quickly extinguished, with only his car completely burned. He was fined €1,200.That same week, a 29-year-old man gave in to temptation: a cigarette in the middle of the night. But on this Thursday, July 23, he was in a forested area, at a time when a maximum fire alert was in effect. He did not start a fire, but he was still taken into police custody and banned from entering Gironde, Landes and Lot-et-Garonne – the three departments that make up the Landes de Gascogne forest, which has been devastated by flames – for the next six months.
It seems like pouring resources into emissions targets while ignoring arsonists and the blazes they start is unwise.
What can be controlled with existing budgets and existing law is fuel buildup on the ground, land-use decisions that keep dense, dry vegetation away from communities, and a justice system that actually tracks and forces treatment on people with documented histories of fire-setting before they light blaze number 26.
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