The federal government on Wednesday announced the arrest of a 29-year-old male in connection with the origin of the devastating Palisades Fire in Los Angeles.
Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced on X the arrest of Jonathan Rinderknecht “on a criminal complaint charging him with maliciously starting what became the Palisades Fire in January.”
‘True disaster.’
Essayli said the criminal complaint alleges that Rinderknecht “started a fire in Pacific Palisades on New Year’s Day — a blaze that eventually turned into one of the most destructive fires in Los Angeles history, causing death and widespread destruction.”
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Jonathan Rinderknecht. Image source: Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli on X
Fire crews extinguished the initial fire, but it continued to smolder underground before reigniting during high winds, Essayli said at a news conference, according to the Associated Press.
The acting U.S. attorney noted that among the evidence collected from Rinderknecht’s digital devices “was an image he generated on ChatGPT depicting a burning city.”
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Image source: Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli on X
Rinderknecht fled the scene of the original fire but returned to the same trail to watch it burn, Essayli said, according to the AP: “He left as soon as he saw the fire trucks were headed to the location. He turned around and went back up there. And he took some video … and watched them fight the fire.”
What’s more, the outlet — citing the criminal complaint — said Rinderknecht not only made several 911 calls to report the fire but also during a Jan. 24 interview told investigators where the fire began, which was “information not yet public and that he would not have known if he hadn’t witnessed it.”
The outlet said the fire erupted Jan. 7, killed 12 people, and destroyed more than 6,000 homes and buildings in the wealthy Pacific Palisades coastal neighborhood of Los Angeles.
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Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images
Rinderknecht’s initial appearance was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. ET Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Orlando, Essayli also noted.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi praised the “great work by @USAttyEssayli and our federal agents to make this crucial arrest.” Bondi added that the Department of Justice “will deliver justice for the Palisades Fire and keep Californians safe — even if California leadership won’t.”
Donald Trump — who was president-elect at the time the fire erupted — blasted California Gov. Gavin Newsom, calling the Democrat’s handling of the fires a “true disaster” while citing lack of proper infrastructure and leadership.
Democrat Mayor Karen Bass also was criticized, given she was in Africa attending a presidential inauguration in Ghana at the time the fire was spreading. In fact, Bass reportedly was at one point living it up at a cocktail party in Ghana while the fire burned. The Los Angeles Times said Bass was hobnobbing and posing for photos at a Jan. 7 embassy shindig.
In February, Bass fired the chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department, who had blamed officials’ incompetence for a disastrous response to the wildfires.
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