A 29-year-old man is facing charges that he started the fire that grew into the deadly and costly Palisades Fire in January.
Acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli announced on X that Jonathan Rinderknect, 29, was charged with maliciously starting the blaze on New Year’s Day.
Rinderknecht is expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Orlando on Wednesday afternoon. He was arrested in Orlando on Tuesday. Essayli did not give details about how he believed Rinderknect allegedly started the fire, The Associated Press reported.
Today we are announcing the arrest of 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht on a criminal complaint charging him with maliciously starting what became the Palisades Fire in January.
— Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) October 8, 2025
⁰The complaint alleges that Rinderknecht's started a fire in Pacific Palisades on New Year's Day --… pic.twitter.com/UzrFa0Lmrz
Essayli said that Rinderknecht created images using ChatGPT that showed a burning city.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta had told CNN previously that there were “some indications that arson is a possibility that we have to be open to.”
While Rinderknect is accused of starting the fire on Jan. 1, the Palisades fire erupted on Jan. 7. It eventually killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,000 homes, the AP reported.
The fire had been put out but continued to smolder underground and was reignited by winds, Essayli said, according to the AP.
A separate blaze, called the Eaton Fire, also broke out on Jan. 7 in Altadena and killed 18 people. The cause of that fire has yet to be determined, the AP reported.
Check back for more on this developing story.
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