[Source: Reuters]

A 37-year-old man appeared in court on Tuesday in ​Spokane, Washington.

This is after being charged with starting one of three fires that have destroyed over 700 houses and other buildings and forced 64,000 people to evacuate the city ‌hit hardest by wildfires sweeping the drought-stricken Pacific Northwest United States.

The suspect, Spokane resident Aaron Farinacci, previously imprisoned for killing his father, made his initial appearance in county court after being jailed on a $1 million bond on a count of first-degree arson, according to court records.

Farinacci is accused of starting the Old Trails Fire, one of three that erupted on Saturday to the north and west of Spokane, by using matches or a lighter to ignite a roadside patch of grass, Spokane ​County Sheriff John Nowels told reporters on Monday evening.

The origins of the two other fires remained under investigation, he said.

The three blazes together are ranked as the top firefighting priority in the ​U.S. as a whole. Dozens of major fires have scorched Washington and Oregon for weeks, fouling the air with smoke and soot.

Driven by gusting winds and ⁠tinder-dry conditions, the Spokane-area fires have blackened more than 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares) on the northern fringe of the state’s second city, home to about 230,000 residents.

Online drone footage showed the Old Trails Fire swept ​out of a state park into wooded, suburban neighborhoods, turning homes to ash, melting cars and leaving only blackened trees standing.

Authorities pleaded with people not to fly drones after dozens of such illegal flights grounded all ​firefighting aircraft on Monday.

“We’re still in a firefight here,” said Tom Stokesberry, spokesman for firefighting teams in the area. “This is just a dynamic situation with everything we’re facing, three separate fires in the urban interface.”

Cooler temperatures and lighter winds were expected to help firefighters on Tuesday, Stokesberry said, adding that the Old Trails and Fairview fires remained stable in size while the Autumn Lane fire continued to grow.

Temperatures were set to rise into the 90s Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) starting midweek, making ​it harder to control the blazes which are not contained at all, state officials said in a report, opens new tab.