Florida man ‘maliciously’ started Palisades fire, then tried to cover his tracks, authorities allege
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- Authorities have arrested a suspect in the Palisades fire after a nine-month investigation into the blaze that killed 12 people.
- The devastating fire that destroyed thousands of homes appears to have been a rekindling of an earlier New Year’s Day fire.
The most destructive inferno in Los Angeles history, which charred a devastating path through Pacific Palisades and Malibu in early January, was a flare-up of a fire that an Uber driver had intentionally set days earlier, federal prosecutors alleged Wednesday.
Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, is accused of starting the initial fire on New Year’s Day that rekindled to become the Palisades fire days later. He was arrested Wednesday in Florida and charged with destruction of property by means of fire, which carries a minimum of five years in federal prison.
Among the evidence collected from Rinderknecht’s digital devices was a dystopian image he generated on ChatGPT depicting a burning city with people trying to flee, said Bill Essayli, acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, at a news conference Wednesday.
Rinderknecht called 911 to report the fire, then offered to help firefighters battle the blaze, according to an affidavit by an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Prosecutors accused Rinderknecht of lying about where he was when he made his first 911 call.
“While we cannot undo the damage and destruction that was done, we hope his arrest and the charges against him bring some measure of justice to the victims of this horrific tragedy,” Essayli said.
The federal prosecution affirms a long-suspected theory among fire experts and comes after a nine-month probe into the cause of the Palisades fire, which charred 23,400 acres and leveled more than 6,800 structures, including many homes. Twelve people died in the blaze.
LAFD response faces scrutiny
Los Angeles fire officials, already under scrutiny for their failure to pre-deploy engines to the Palisades fire, are now facing questions about why they didn’t fully extinguish the flames from the initial fire before hurricane-force winds blew into the area and fanned an ember buried within the roots of dense vegetation.
“This affidavit puts the responsibility on the fire department,” said Ed Nordskog, former head of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s arson unit. “There needs to be a commission examining why this rekindled fire was allowed to reignite.”
He added: “The arsonist set the first fire, but the Fire Department proactively has a duty to do certain things.”
A Times investigation found that LAFD officials did not pre-deploy any engines to the Palisades ahead of the Jan. 7 fire, despite warnings about extreme weather. In preparing for the winds, the department staffed up only five of more than 40 engines available to supplement the regular firefighting force.
Those engines could have been pre-positioned in the Palisades and elsewhere, as had been done in the past during similar weather.
“Lives were tragically lost. Thousands of homes were destroyed. Our heroic firefighters fought the blaze valiantly with no rest,” L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement Wednesday. “Each day that families are displaced is a day too long and as we are working tirelessly to bring Angelenos home, we are also working towards closure and towards justice — and today is a step forward in that process.”
New Year’s Day starts with a fire
While some residents said they saw fireworks in the area on Jan. 1, authorities said they don’t believe fireworks were a factor in the initial fire, called the Lachman fire. Rinderknecht allegedly set the fire “maliciously” with an open flame — “likely a lighter” that ignited combustible material like vegetation or paper, according to the ATF agent’s affidavit.
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Essayli said Rinderknecht was working as an Uber driver that night and drove to the Skull Rock trailhead after dropping off a passenger nearby. Two of his passengers later told law enforcement that he appeared agitated and angry.
Rinderknecht, who once lived in the neighborhood, parked his car and attempted to contact a former friend via Facebook Messenger at about 11:38 p.m., according to the affidavit.
From the trailhead, where a sign read “Danger” and “No Fires/Smoking,” Rinderknecht walked up a narrow dirt path to a clearing known as Hidden Buddha for the small Buddha figurines people leave there, at the top of the hill. A former friend told investigators that Rinderknecht had frequented the area in the past.
Rinderknecht used his iPhone to take videos at the clearing and listen to a French rap song “Un Zder, Un The,” according to the affidavit. The music video for the song, which the affidavit said was about despair and bitterness, shows a trash can on fire. Rinderknecht had listened to the song nine times in the four days before he allegedly set the fire, the affidavit said.
UC San Diego cameras that monitor the area first captured signs of fire at 12:12 a.m. Rinderknecht immediately placed a call to 911, but it didn’t go through, according to the affidavit.
In the five minutes after he allegedly set the fire, prosecutors said Rinderknecht called 911 several times to report the fire but had no cell service. When he finally reached 911, he was back at the bottom of the trail, and a resident had already reported the blaze.
While on the phone with 911, Rinderknecht allegedly typed a question into ChatGPT: “Are you at fault if a fire is [lit] because of your cigarettes,” according to the affidavit.
Investigators determined that smoking didn’t cause the blaze and suspected his query was an attempt to create “a more innocent explanation for the cause of the fire,” the affidavit stated.
Criminal complaint charging Jonathan Rinderknecht with intentionally setting a blaze that would become the Palisades fire.
Rinderknecht then got into his car and drove away, passing fire engines screaming through the neighborhood. He later told investigators that he turned around and offered to help fight the blaze, according to the affidavit.
The ATF agent who wrote the affidavit but whose name is redacted in the document noted that it’s not uncommon for arsonists to call 911 to report the fires they have set, then watch firefighters respond.
Although Rinderknecht was arrested in Florida, authorities said he lived in Southern California at the time of the fire and had a friend who lives near where it started.
He made “false statements” to investigators, prosecutors alleged, saying he first saw the fire after he left the Hidden Buddha clearing and walked down the trail toward his car. However, GPS data from his phone showed he was in the clearing when he first called 911.
Rinderknecht is in custody and could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Assistant Federal Defender Aziza Hawthorne, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
How the Palisades fire grew to a raging inferno
Water-dropping helicopters were not able to fly in the early hours of the Lachman fire because of the wind, according to the agency. Around 1:40 a.m., they began launching an aerial attack with support crews on the ground. News footage captured the charge, with walls of flames towering over homes and firefighters with hoses running into backyards.
Shortly after 3:30 a.m., Los Angeles Fire Department officials reported that they had stopped the blaze’s forward progress.
A little over an hour later, the LAFD reported that firefighters had “completed the hose line around the perimeter of the fire and it is fully contained.” Some firefighters remained there to mop up and ensure the fire didn’t flare up again.
On Jan. 2, firefighters returned to collect the fire hoses, saying it appeared that the fire was fully extinguished, according to the affidavit.
The Times reviewed footage from UC San Diego cameras monitoring the hillside over the next six days, and no new smoke was visible. However, a source with knowledge of the evidence, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said investigators obtained proof that smoke was coming out of the ground between Jan. 1 and Jan. 7.
Kenny Cooper, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who was involved in the probe, downplayed firefighters’ role in failing to prevent the rekindling, saying that the blaze burned deep within the ground and remained active for days.
“The person who started this fire is solely to blame,” he said. “I will never blame our brave firefighters when we know how this fire started.”
LAFD officials declined to detail whether they conducted thermal imaging of the area, which agencies frequently perform to find hot spots when there is no visible light or in heavy smog or mist.
Fire experts say it’s possible for a blaze to rekindle days and even months after an initial fire is thought to be extinguished. Some other destructive fires, including the 1991 Oakland Hills fire and the 2023 Maui fire, have been restarts of older fires.
Questions remain for survivors
Several Palisades residents said they are now wondering why the initial fire could continue to smolder.
“What protocols were in place for ensuring the Lachman fire was fully extinguished? Were they followed? Were resources adequately deployed to the area on January 7, given the extreme wind warnings?” said Darrin Hurwitz, whose home was destroyed in the Palisades fire.
Jon Brown, whose family lived at the Pacific Palisades Bowl mobile home park, which burned in the fire, scoffed as federal officials at Wednesday’s news conference sidestepped questions about why the Lachman fire wasn’t fully extinguished.
“They think that they have done something by finding the guy who did it, but they’re really going to fan the flames on what everybody is really pissed about: Why wasn’t the fire put out on the 1st?” said Brown, who gathered with neighbors in the lobby of the city Department of Building and Safety.
The neighborhood around the Skull Rock trailhead, where many homes were destroyed by the Palisades fire, was quiet Wednesday, other than the occasional drone of machinery along streets filled with bulldozers and construction trucks.
Stacy Mitchell, who lives about a mile away and whose house was damaged in the fire, spoke of losing local landmarks — the supermarket, the post office, restaurants — that had long provided a sense of community.
“We hope he’s held accountable for his actions, but it’s not really bringing any closure to me,” she said.
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