The most destructive inferno in Los Angeles history, which tore a devastating path through Pacific Palisades and Malibu in early January, was a resumption of a fire that broke out days earlier near a popular hiking area, federal investigators said.
Authorities also announced Wednesday the arrest of Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, on suspicion of starting the first fire on New Year’s Eve. Rinderknecht, of Florida, was charged with maliciously starting what ultimately became the Palisades Fire. Among the evidence collected from his digital devices was an image he generated on ChatGPT depicting a city on fire, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said.
“While we cannot undo the damage and destruction that has been caused, we hope that his arrest and the charges against him will bring some justice to the victims of this horrific tragedy,” Essayli said.
The discovery confirms a long-suspected theory and comes after nine months of investigation into the cause of the Palisades Fire, which charred 23,400 acres and razed 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 around 12:17 a.m. on New Year’s Day on the hillside above Pacific Palisades by a resident whose home is about two blocks from the popular Skull Rock Trail. Sources familiar with the investigation, who were not authorized to speak publicly, told the Times that the Lachman fire appeared to have been started by a fireworks display.
The water-width helicopters were initially unable to fly due to wind, according to the agency, but around 1:40 a.m. they began launching an air attack with ground support teams. News footage captured the charge, with walls of flame towering over homes and firefighters with garden hoses flowing into yards.
Shortly after 3:30 a.m., Los Angeles firefighters reported they had stopped the fire from progressing.
A little over an hour later, the LAFD reported that firefighters had “completed the hose around the perimeter of the fire and it was fully contained.” However, some firefighters remained on site to clean up and prevent the fire from re-igniting.
LAFD officials declined to say whether they conducted thermal imaging of the area afterward. Agencies frequently use thermal imaging during large wildfires to find hot spots during periods when there is no visible light or in conditions of heavy smog or haze.
One reason some experts believed the January fire was a resurgence: The second fire broke out in the same general area.
UC San Diego cameras monitoring mountains and hills, including Pacific Palisades, captured the Jan. 1 fire. The Times reviewed available footage over the next six days and no new smoke was visible. But around 10:30 a.m. on January 7, new smoke was seen in the same area.
By midmorning, firefighters were back on the same Palisades hillside, amid high winds, battling what would become a much bigger inferno: the Palisades Fire.
A Los Angeles firefighter who was among the first on the scene admitted on the radio that they were going back “to where the Lachman Fire was.”
Fire experts say it is possible for a fire to reignite days, or even months in some environments, after an initial fire is thought to have been extinguished, although this is not typical. Embers may be buried in tree roots or in thick ash-covered undergrowth and then be released by strong winds.
Some other destructive fires in recent decades have also been resurgences of older fires.
The massive 1991 Oakland Hills Fire, which destroyed 2,500 structures, exploded after firefighters thought they contained a six-acre blaze the day before. Firefighters left equipment on site but did not provide continuous surveillance. The winds picked up and the fire consumed the houses.
The Maui fire, the deadliest in the United States in more than a century, killed at least 101 people and also started in the wake of an earlier brush fire caused by downed power lines that firefighters thought they had extinguished.
