Authorities announced Wednesday morning that an arrest had been made in connection to the January fires in the Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced at a press conference that 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht had been arrested on a criminal complaint that alleged he “maliciously” started the fire on Jan. 1, 2025, that later led to the destructive Palisades Fire.
Authorities said Rinderknecht was completing an Uber ride as a driver on New Year’s Eve in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, walked to a nearby trail, took videos on his phone, and listened to a rap song “whose music video included objects being lit on fire.”
Rinderknecht allegedly called 911 to report the fire and fled the scene in his car but later took videos on his phone of firefighters working to extinguish the blaze.
Essayli did not say how authorities believe Rinderknecht started the fire, but excluded fireworks, lightning or power lines as a cause for the blaze. Essayli pointed to a prompt Rinderknecht put into ChatGPT that resulted in a dystopian painting showing “a burning forest and a crowd fleeing from it.”
“The allegations are further supported by the defendant’s cell phone, his false statements to law enforcement and his behavior during the Lockman fire, which the defendant is charged with maliciously starting shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day of this year, and which eventually became the Palisades Fire,” Essayli said.
While firefighters were able to “suppress” the fire, it continued to smolder and burn underground, until heavy winds caused it to spread above ground and become the Palisades Fire, which was the most destructive blaze in Los Angeles’ history, authorities said.
“We will prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he intentionally started this fire and maliciously,” Essayli said.
Kenny Cooper, the special agent in charge of the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Los Angeles field office, said there were multiple agencies working together in the investigation and said it was “a long road to justice for our community.”
Cooper noted that the ATF, working with local fire and police departments in the Los Angeles area, conducted DNA samples, scientific tests and more to get to the bottom of how the fire started.
He noted that they determined the Jan. 7 Palisades Fire was caused by an “intentionally set fire” near a viewpoint on the Temescal Ridge Trail on Jan. 1. It was a “holdover fire,” meaning it was still smoldering in the dense vegetation and continued to burn until high winds reignited it, Cooper said. The fire, allegedly started by Rinderknecht, was named the Lockman Fire and started on land owned by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, which receives federal funding, the Department of Justice said.
“We know this arrest cannot erase the pain or grief or losses endured, but we hope it is a step forward,” he said.
According to the DOJ, Rinderknecht was a former Palisades resident who was now living in Melbourne, Florida.
The department’s criminal complaint said Rinderknecht is charged with alleged destruction of property by means of fire. He was arrested on Tuesday and is expected to make his first court appearance Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Orlando.
If Rinderknecht is convicted, he would face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated the arrest in a post online, noting the DOJ will “deliver justice for the Palisades Fire and keep Californians safe — even if California leadership won’t.”
The Palisades Fire was highly destructive and burned for 24 days before being fully contained on Jan. 31, 2025. It burned more than 23,000 acres, killed 12 people and destroyed almost 7,000 structures. Several other fires, the Eaton fire, the Hurst fire and the Woodley fire, also engulfed the valley.
Firefighters and other officials from nearby cities and states rushed to the Los Angeles area earlier this year to help extinguish the fires that displaced thousands of people and burned entire communities to the ground.