A 29-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the Pacific Palisades fire in Los Angeles that claimed 12 lives and destroyed more than 6,000 homes in January. Federal authorities said investigators discovered evidence on Jonathan Rinderknecht’s digital devices, including an image he generated on ChatGPT showing a city engulfed in flames.
The fire, the most destructive in Los Angeles history, began on January 7 near a hiking trail in the affluent coastal neighborhood.
The same day, the Eaton Fire ignited elsewhere in the Los Angeles area, killing 19 people and destroying over 9,400 structures. Authorities have yet to determine the cause of that blaze.
Rinderknecht is scheduled to appear in court in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday.
The fire burned more than 23,000 acres, causing roughly $150 billion in damages, and raged for over three weeks, affecting parts of Topanga and Malibu. Among the structures destroyed were the homes of several celebrities, including Mel Gibson, Paris Hilton, and Jeff Bridges.
Rinderknecht was taken into custody in Florida on Tuesday and charged with destruction of property by means of fire, Acting US Attorney Bill Essayli said at a news conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
"The arrest, we hope, will offer a measure of justice to all those impacted," Essayli said. Authorities indicated that additional charges, including murder, may be brought.
He appeared in court on Wednesday but did not enter a plea. He is expected to return to the US District Court in Orlando on Thursday for a bond hearing and will not formally plead until his arraignment in Los Angeles in the coming weeks.
Investigators said the first blaze Rinderknecht allegedly started on New Year’s Day, known as the Lachman fire, was initially contained but smoldered underground in dense vegetation before reigniting during a windstorm.
Officials said Rinderknecht was familiar with the area, having previously lived one block from the Skull Rock Trailhead, where the fire allegedly began. After the fires, he relocated to Florida.
According to the indictment, he started the fire with an open flame after completing an Uber ride on New Year’s Eve. Two passengers who rode with him that evening told investigators that Rinderknecht appeared agitated and angry.
Authorities used his phone data to confirm his location when the fire began but say he misled investigators, claiming he had been near the bottom of the trail. Investigators also found videos on his phone showing firefighters trying to extinguish the blaze and recordings of his attempts to call 911 just after midnight on January 1. In one screen recording, he was connected to a dispatcher.
Rinderknecht reportedly asked ChatGPT, "Are you at fault if a fire is lift [sic] because of your cigarettes?" Investigators said he sought to "preserve evidence of himself trying to assist in the suppression of the fire" and "wanted to create evidence regarding a more innocent explanation for the cause of the fire."
During a January 24 interview, authorities noted he appeared nervous, with his carotid artery visibly pulsing whenever asked who had started the fire.
In July 2024, five months before the blaze, he asked ChatGPT to create a "dystopian painting" depicting a burning forest with crowds fleeing the fire.
His prompt described: "In the middle [of the painting], hundreds of thousands of people in poverty are trying to get past a gigantic gate with a big dollar sign on it. On the other side of the gate and the entire wall is a conglomerate of the richest people. They are chilling, watching the world burn down, and watching the people struggle. They are laughing, enjoying themselves, and dancing."
A month before the fire, he reportedly prompted ChatGPT with: "I literally burnt the Bible that I had. It felt amazing. I felt so liberated."
An outside review commissioned by Los Angeles County supervisors found that outdated policies in sending emergency alerts delayed evacuation warnings and contributed to official failings during the fire.
California Governor Gavin Newsom described the arrest as a key step in "bringing closure to the thousands of Californians whose lives were upended" and said the state is supporting the federal investigation while awaiting an independent after-action report conducted by leading fire safety researchers.