Man accused of ‘maliciously’ lighting fire that caused deadly Palisades Fire: DOJ

Months after the Palisades Fire devastated parts of Los Angeles County and killed a dozen people, officials announced the arrest of a man they say “maliciously” lit a fire that grew into the monstrous blaze.

Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, is accused of setting a fire on Jan. 1 in Pacific Palisades that eventually broke out into the Palisades Fire, the Justice Department said.

The New Year’s Day wildfire was extinguished by fire crews but continued to burn underground before strong winds caused it to surface and spread nearly a week later, “causing what became known as the Palisades Fire, one of the most destructive wildfires in the history of the city of Los Angeles,” Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said during a news conference Wednesday.

What became known as the Lachman Fire was detected at 12:12 a.m. on Jan. 1 at the top of a hill in Pacific Palisades, according to the Department of Justice.

Rinderknecht, who the Justice Department said was working as an Uber driver at the time and once lived in Pacific Palisades, had dropped off a customer in the area of ​​the fire, according to the complaint. That night, two of his passengers allegedly told authorities that he seemed “agitated and angry,” according to the complaint.

The complaint alleges that Rinderknecht set the fire by igniting a combustible material, such as vegetation or paper, with an open flame, likely a lighter.

He attempted to contact 911 several times to report the fire, before finally succeeding once he had cell service, according to the complaint. He allegedly made a three-minute screen recording of his iPhone while trying to call 911, asking ChatGPT, “Are you to blame if a fire breaks out?” [sic] for your cigarettes?”, according to the complaint.

“Based on my training and experience and this investigation, this indicates that RINDERKNECHT wanted to preserve evidence of himself trying to assist in extinguishing the fire and wanted to create evidence regarding a more innocent explanation for the cause of the fire,” a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wrote in an affidavit in the complaint.

Essayli said the suspect left in his car but later returned and filmed firefighters responding to the fire.

There is no indication that anyone else was in the area at the time the fire started, Essayli said.

Investigators interviewed Rinderknecht on Jan. 24, during which he allegedly lied about where he was when he saw the Lachman fire, according to the Justice Department.

“He claimed he was near the end of a hiking trail when he first saw the fire and called 911, but geolocation data from his iPhone provider showed he was standing in a clearing 30 feet from the fire as it grew rapidly,” the Justice Department said in a news release.

Essayli said he did not want to discuss motive, although he pointed to digital evidence included in the complaint of an image Rinderknecht allegedly generated in July 2024 using ChatGPT, which shows in part “a forest on fire and a crowd fleeing from it.”

“You could see some of his thought process in the previous months, when he was generating some really disturbing images on ChatGPT, which appear to show a dystopian city being burned down,” Essayli said.

Rinderknecht has been criminally charged with destruction of property by arson. He was arrested Tuesday near his Florida residence and is scheduled to make his initial appearance in federal court in Orlando on Wednesday, authorities said.

The charge is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted, the Justice Department said.

Essayli said the Justice Department will make decisions on additional charges against Rinderknecht in the coming days.

The Palisades Fire broke out on Jan. 7, burning more than 23,000 acres for more than three weeks and destroying nearly 7,000 structures, decimating the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, according to California fire officials.

It started the same day as the Eaton Fire, which burned more than 14,000 acres in Los Angeles County, destroyed more than 9,400 structures and killed 19 people, according to authorities.

The fires began burning during strong Santa Ana winds, which, combined with dry conditions, helped them spread quickly. This spread caused mass evacuations.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell called the investigation into the Palisades fire “extremely intensive and exhaustive.”

“I am proud of the professionalism and dedication shown by our detectives and the team working collaboratively with our federal, state and local partners,” he said during the press conference. “That teamwork ultimately led to the arrest of the suspect responsible for this devastating crime.”

Over the past eight months, investigators followed more than 200 leads, conducted hundreds of interviews and collected more than 13,000 pieces of evidence, including fire debris, digital data and DNA samples, as part of the investigation, according to Kenny Cooper, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“We have a lot of different data concluding where this fire started, and the behavior of the fire from that origin, from that Lachman fire, was clearly established in the Palisades fire,” Cooper said at the news conference.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the city will “shortly” release the Los Angeles Fire Department’s report on the Palisades Fire now that an arrest has been made.

“More than nine months ago, our city faced one of the most devastating periods our region has ever seen. Lives were tragically lost. Thousands of homes were destroyed. Our heroic firefighters fought the fire bravely and tirelessly,” he said in a statement. “Every day that families are displaced is a day too long, and while we work tirelessly to bring Angelenos home, we are also working to achieve closure and justice, and today is a step forward in that process.”