A suspect has been arrested in connection with the criminal investigation into the January Pacific Palisades Fire, California officials announced on Wednesday.
Twenty-nine-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht was arrested Tuesday for igniting what became the January Palisades fire that killed 12 people and damaged thousands of buildings in the Palisades, Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said during a press conference.
“The complaint unsealed today charges the defendant with destruction of property by means of fire, a felony that carries a mandatory minimum five-year sentence and is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison,” Essayli said.
“With clarity, we know this is an incendiary fire and that the subject that we arrested started it,” says Special Agent Cooper on arson arrest in LA Fires. “We’re not making a probable cause arrest. This team up here feels that we have met beyond a reasonable doubt.” pic.twitter.com/4fphYvnqUs
— Caleb Howe (@CalebHowe) October 8, 2025
Rinderknecht, who currently resides in Florida, is accused of starting a fire in Pacific Palisades shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day after finishing a shift as an Uber driver.
“According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, law enforcement determined that the Palisades Fire was a ‘holdover’ fire – a continuation of the Lachman Fire that began early in the morning on New Year’s Day 2025,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California said in a press release. “Although firefighters quickly suppressed the Lachman Fire, unbeknownst to anyone the fire continued to smolder and burn underground within the root structure of dense vegetation.”
Among the evidence that was collected from his digital devices was an image he generated on ChatGPT depicting a burning city and a crowd fleeing from it.
“The complaint alleges that a single person’s recklessness caused one of the worst fires Los Angeles has ever seen, resulting in death and widespread destruction in Pacific Palisades,” Essayli said in a statement. “While we cannot bring back what victims lost, we hope this criminal case brings some measure of justice to those affected by this horrific tragedy.”
Meanwhile, an independent review published in September of Los Angeles County’s response to the January fires found a “series of weaknesses” that hindered efforts to alert and evacuate residents, including the sheriff’s department being tied up with preparations for the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol
This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
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