New Delhi, Aug. 5 -- SPOKANE, Wash. - A religious statue stood undamaged in the Balboa neighborhood for days after the fire tore through, a ceramic figure rising from the ash. Everything around it had burned. More than 700 structures collapsed in the Old Trails Fire, tens of thousands of families were forced to flee, and 16 square miles of eastern Washington were scorched in one of the most destructive wildfires in state history. On Monday, prosecutors said they believed they knew who started it.

Aaron Farinacci, 37, was charged with first-degree arson in Spokane County. Investigators concluded he was responsible for igniting the Old Trails Fire, the largest of three blazes that devastated Spokane and its surrounding communities last wee...