The man charged with setting one of the three destructive blazes in eastern Washington this month also told detectives he had planned the arson two weeks in advance, an affidavit said.

© Loren Elliott for The New York Times

The authorities said they found a body inside a burned home near Sacramento. A man was charged this week with causing the blaze by operating equipment that produced sparks.

© Fred Greaves/Reuters

Aircraft violating restrictions have disrupted firefighting efforts in Spokane County, Wash., this week, officials said.

© Loren Elliott for The New York Times

Court documents allege Aaron Farinacci, who faces slew of arson charges, set 25 fires in Spokane area over past year

The 37-year-old man accused of sparking a devastating fire in Washington allegedly studied how to maximize the blaze’s destruction and was responsible for setting 25 other fires in the Spokane area over the past year, according to a court affidavit.

Aaron Farinacci, who faces a slew of arson charges, is accused of starting the Old Trails fire, which began on 1 August and is still burning – one of three “Spokane complex” fires that have scorched hundreds of homes and displaced thousands of residents.

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© Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

© Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

© Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Experts say growing trend on sites such as Polymarket and Kalshi could motivate people to start fires to win money

A group of US lawmakers is sounding the alarm over prediction market platforms that allow users to bet on wildfires, as experts warn the emerging trend could raise the risk of arson.

Democratic senators from six states sent a letter this week to the chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), an independent government agency regulating platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi, urging it to rein in the practice.

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© Photograph: Agustin Paullier/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Agustin Paullier/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Agustin Paullier/AFP/Getty Images

While many leaders compare the wildfire crisis to the second world war, governments fail to adopt the real lessons of pre-emptive wartime action

As France and Spain battle historic wildfires, comparisons to the second world war abound. “One of the continent’s biggest evacuation efforts since World War II,” reports the Associated Press. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has called the wildfires his country’s “most difficult situation since the second world war”.

The images crossing all our screens certainly feel war-like – emergency aircraft and black smoke fill the skies, frantic civilians seeking shelter, historic towns lying in ruins, charred forests and burned-out vehicles, exhausted and sweat-soaked emergency responders.

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© Photograph: Alexandros Beltes/EPA

© Photograph: Alexandros Beltes/EPA

© Photograph: Alexandros Beltes/EPA

After fleeing France’s worst wildfire in decades, residents of Le Porge, a village west of Bordeaux, returned home 13 days later. They found a town in ruins.

A brutal summer has exposed how much pressure European countries are under from forces largely out of their grip: war in Iran and Ukraine, record heat and more.

© Pierre Crom/Getty Images