The most destructive inferno in Los Angeles history, which charred a devastating path through Pacific Palisades and Malibu in early January, was a rekindling fire that an Uber driver intentionally set days earlier near a popular hiking area, federal investigators alleged.
Authorities on Wednesday also announced the arrest of 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht, who is suspected of setting the initial fire on New Year’s Eve. Rinderknecht, of Florida, was charged with maliciously starting what eventually became the Palisades fire. Among the evidence that was collected from his digital devices was an image he generated on ChatGPT depicting a burning city, said U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli.
“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 finding affirms a long suspected theory 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 in Pacific Palisades and Malibu. Twelve people died in the fire.
The first fire, called the Lachman fire, was reported about 12:17 a.m. on New Year’s Day in the hillside above Pacific Palisades by a resident whose home is about two blocks from the popular Skull Rock trail. Sources with knowledge of the investigation who were not authorized to speak publicly told The Times that the Lachman fire appeared to have been sparked by fireworks.
Water-dropping helicopters initially were not able to fly because of the wind, according to the agency, but 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 they had stopped forward progress of the blaze.
A little over an hour later, LAFD reported that firefighters had “completed the hose line around the perimeter of the fire and it is fully contained.” However, some firefighters remained at the site to mop up and ensure the fire didn’t flare up again.
LAFD officials declined to detail whether they conducted thermal imaging of the area in the aftermath. Agencies frequently use thermal imaging during large wildfires to find hot spots during periods when there is no visible light or in conditions with heavy smog or mist.
One reason some experts believed the January fire was a rekindle: The second fire erupted in the same general area.
UC San Diego cameras that monitor the mountains and hills, including Pacific Palisades, captured the Jan. 1 blaze. The Times reviewed available footage over the next six days, and no new smoke was visible. But at about 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 7, new smoke was seen in the same area.
By mid-morning, firefighters were back at the same Palisades hillside amid hurricane-force winds fighting what would become a much larger inferno: the Palisades fire.
A Los Angeles firefighter who was among the first on the scene acknowledged over the radio that they were going “back up to where the Lachman fire was.”
Fire experts say it’s possible for a blaze to rekindle days and even months in some environments after an initial fire is thought to be extinguished, though it’s not typical. Embers can get buried in tree roots or underbrush covered by heavy ash and then later be freed by strong winds.
Some other destructive fires in recent decades have also been restarts of older fires.
The immense Oakland Hills fire in 1991, which destroyed 2,500 structures, exploded after firefighters believed they contained an earlier six-acre fire the day before. Firefighters left equipment at the scene but did not continuously monitor it. Winds picked up, and the conflagration consumed homes.
The Maui fire, the deadliest in in the U.S. in more than a century, killed at least 101 people and also ignited from an earlier brush fire caused by downed power lines that firefighters believed they had snuffed.
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