Man Charged With ‘Maliciously’ Starting Massive LA Fire
(Bloomberg) -- Federal authorities arrested a 29-year-old man on charges that he intentionally started the blaze that days later became the Palisades Fire, which killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes in the Pacific Coast area of Los Angeles.
Jonathan Rinderknecht was charged with maliciously setting the fire on New Year’s Day, Bill Essayli, the US Attorney in Los Angeles, said Wednesday. He was arrested a day earlier at his home in Florida, and appeared in court in Orlando, where a magistrate judge ordered that Rinderknecht remain in custody until a hearing Thursday. His court-appointed lawyer didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Essayli said Rinderknecht, who had lived in the Pacific Palisades area, worked as an Uber driver on New Year’s Eve. He dropped off a passenger near where a fire was later discovered to have started that evening. After finishing his shift, he walked up a nearby trail, where he stood on a hilltop while taking videos on his iPhone and listening to a rap song which included lyrics about “objects being lit on fire,” Essayli said.
At 12 minutes past midnight on New Year’s Day, environmental sensors detected a fire had begun, with Rinderknecht calling 911 to report the fire, Essayli said. Rinderknecht fled the scene in his car but then returned after seeing fire engines driving up the hillside to the fire, according to Essayli.
The prosecutor described how the small fire that night morphed into a major conflagration a week later.
“The fire continued to smolder and burn underground within the root structure of the dense vegetation,” Essayli said. “So that fire started on January 1, and it smoldered underground for about a week until on January 7, heavy winds caused this underground fire to surface and spread above ground, causing what became known as the Palisades fire, one of the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles City history.”
Federal authorities recovered an image from Rinderknecht’s digital devices that he generated on ChatGPT depicting a burning city, according to Essayli.
Rinderknecht moved to Florida “because he was aware that people might be looking for him,” Essayli said. Authorities have not disclosed a motive but are continuing to investigate.
“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 in a statement.
After months of investigation and even a re-staging of the blaze, the authorities have determined with “complete certainty” that the Palisades Fire was a “holdover fire” that actually began on Jan. 1, said Kenny Cooper, Assistant Special Agent in Charge for the San Francisco Field Division of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The loss of life and property in the Palisades Fire, one of the most destructive in California history, has led to a flurry of lawsuits against the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the biggest municipal utility in the US. Some residents who lost homes, businesses and loved ones alleged the utility failed to take appropriate safety measures in an area highly vulnerable to wildfires.
LA Fire Victims Are Suing Utilities. What’s at Stake?: QuickTake
The arrest doesn’t undermine the legal claims against the utility, according to Roger Behle, an attorney who represents residents.
“Our claims against the LADWP relate to the failure of its water supply system after the Palisades Fire initially started, leaving firefighters with no water within hours, and the LADWP’s failure to de-energize power to Pacific Palisades, which resulted in multiple independent spot fires starting all over the Palisades,” he said in an email. “In short, the announcement by the US Attorney and ATF today fully supports our claims against the LADWP and state of California.”
An LADWP representative had no immediate comment.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass thanked federal authorities for apprehending Rinderknecht.
“More than 9 months ago, our city faced one of the most devastating periods our region had ever seen,” she said. “Lives were tragically lost. Thousands of homes were destroyed. Our heroic firefighters fought the blaze valiantly with no rest.”
The Palisades Fire burned more than 23,000 acres and destroyed more than 6,800 structures before it was fully contained on Jan. 31.
Gary Baum, 70, whose home is less than a mile from the fire ignition point, said he observed what appeared to be flames shooting from root holes in the ground on Jan. 7, when Santa Ana winds stirred up the Palisades Fire, an observation similar to what the US Attorney described at Wednesday’s press conference.
“It was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen,” Baum, an orthodontist and life-long Palisades resident, said in an interview.
While it’s good that officials arrested the suspect, it won’t bring back his home or community, he said.
“The fire’s not as bad as the consequences afterward.”
(Updates with comment from attorney and resident starting in 12th paragraph)
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