Prosecutors claim Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, started a smaller wildfire that went on to become the devastating Palisades blaze. Is he ultimately to blame?
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ore than a year after a devastating wildfire tore through Pacific Palisades, all but obliterating one of the west coast’s most iconic neighborhoods, prosecutors are honing their case against the man they say is responsible.
Jonathan Rinderknecht, a 29-year-old occasional Uber driver who used to live in Pacific Palisades, was charged with three felonies by federal prosecutors in October, who claim he was in the neighborhood in the early hours of New Year’s Day. According to a federal complaint, Rinderknecht allegedly used an open flame – likely a lighter – to start a small blaze that grew to about 8 acres (3.2 hectares) before firefighters rushed to the area and extinguished it.
That blaze was known as the Lachman fire. But on 7 January, just five days after the Los Angeles fire department (LAFD) said they had put the Lachman fire out, the embers were whipped into a frenzy by 100mph (161km/h) winds and fed by tinderbox conditions – quickly growing to become the most destructive blaze in Los Angeles history.
