Photo: Alamy
A man suspected of starting a fire that turned into the Pacific Palisades blaze in California has been arrested, months after the devastating inferno consumed countless homes and resulted in multiple fatalities.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California, a former resident of Pacific Palisades, now living in Florida, was arrested and charged with destruction of property by means of fire.
The suspect, Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, is also known by the names Jonathan Rinder and Jon Rinder. He had been living in Melbourne, Florida.
Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement, “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. 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.”
According to authorities, the Palisades Fire was a “holdover” from the nearby Lachman Fire, which began New Year’s Day 2025. A criminal complaint alleged that Rinderknecht “maliciously set the Lachman Fire,” which grew into the massive Palisades Fire over the next several days.
Authorities also revealed that the suspect was working as an Uber driver. In the early morning hours of January 1, 2025, Rinderknecht called 911, supposedly to report the fire, but couldn’t get a signal to complete the call:
“Rinderknecht then fled in his car, passing fire engines driving in the opposite direction. He then turned around and followed the fire engines to the scene, driving at a high rate of speed. Rinderknecht walked up the same trail from earlier that night to watch the fire and the firefighters. At approximately 1:02 a.m., he used his iPhone to take more videos of the scene.”
He is also accused of lying to law enforcement about where he was when the Lachman Fire started. If he is convicted on the charges of destruction of property, he could be sentenced to up to 20 years in federal prison.
According to Cal Fire, the Palisades Fire consumed over 23,000 acres in Los Angeles County. It left a trail of unthinkable destruction in its wake, and unfortunately for former Pacific Palisades residents, it doesn’t look like they’ll be able to rebuild in the same area.
As reported by RSBN, California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom reportedly plans to build what amounts to low-income housing in the Pacific Palisades region – once a wealthy and upper-end neighborhood.
“How unfair is that to the people that have suffered so much! Newscum allowed their houses to burn by not accepting Hundreds of Millions of Gallons of Water from the Pacific Northwest, and now, the Low Income Housing starts rising long before he gets Permits for California Citizens to rebuild, but long after the Federal Permits were issued,” President Trump wrote in a September statement.
Gov. Newsom has committed $101 million to “jumpstart critical rebuilding efforts” in Los Angeles County to construct “affordable multifamily rental housing,” allowing “affordable housing developers” to apply to several funding programs at once to build these units.
