6 days ago - 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...

November 17, 2025 - Rinderknecht, 29, was arrested in October in Florida and indicted on a trio of federal arson charges that accuse him of igniting a smaller brush fire in the Palisades Highlands on January 1, which the ATF said it concluded later reignited during ...

1 week ago - On October 8, federal authorities arrested a man in Florida and charged him with three felony counts of arson, alleging that he set an earlier fire on January 1 using a combustible material that was not fully extinguished and later reignited ...

January 13, 2025 - LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County ... burglaries in the cities of Pacific Palisades and Altadena, and a separate defendant has been charged with arson for intentionally starting a fire in the city of Azusa....

October 24, 2025 - Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, is charged with "maliciously" starting a fire on January 1 that was quickly suppressed but continued to smolder beneath dense vegetation near Pacific Palisades before reigniting a week later amid fierce winds.

1 week ago - 1 brush fire extinguished. A 29-year-old Uber driver has pleaded not guilty to federal arson charges in connection with starting that initial blaze that later rekindled into the Palisades fire.

2 weeks ago - Within hours, the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) arrived on scene and began digging handlines to stop its spread. The eight-acre fire—ignited by a 29-year-old former Palisades resident, who has since been charged with arson—was quickly ...

November 8, 2025 - Law enforcement determined – using witness statements, video surveillance, cellphone data, and analysis of fire dynamics and patterns at the scene, among other things – that Rinderknecht maliciously set the Lachman Fire just after midnight on January 1 on land owned by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), an organization that received federal funding. A week later, the same fire – then known as the Palisades Fire – burned federal property.

October 24, 2025 - Jonathan Rinderknecht could now face up to 45 years in prison for the Palisades Fire after a federal grand jury indicted him and added additional charges. He is charged with one count of destruction of property by means of fire, one count of arson affecting property used in interstate commerce and one county of timber set a fire.

October 16, 2025 - Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, is charged in the three-count indictment with one count of destruction of property by means of fire. He is also now charged with one count of arson affecting property used in interstate commerce, and one count of timber ...

3 weeks ago - His half-hour documentary, Paradise ... devastating fire is believed to have reignited on January 7 after a deliberate arson in the hills to the north of the neighborhood in the early hours of New Years Day....

November 16, 2025 - Flames whipped by 100mph winds ravaged large parts of the Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Topanga, ultimately killing 12 people and destroying more than 6,800 structures. A man has been arrested and charged with maliciously igniting the Lachman fire.

November 1, 2025 - During the investigation, agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives concluded that the fire smoldered and burned for days underground, “within the root structure of dense vegetation” until heavy winds caused it to surface, according to an affidavit attached to the Rinderknecht complaint. Villanueva told The Times that neither he nor the LAFD’s arson squad knew what a holdover fire was until federal investigators explained it to them.

October 10, 2025 - Federal investigators have announced that the Palisades Fire began with an act of arson and a chatbot query.

November 8, 2025 - Law enforcement determined – using witness statements, video surveillance, cellphone data, and analysis of fire dynamics and patterns at the scene, among other things – that Rinderknecht maliciously set the Lachman Fire just after midnight on January 1 on land owned by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), an organization that received federal funding. A week later, the same fire – then known as the Palisades Fire – burned federal property.

November 19, 2025 - The 29-year-old resident of Melbourne, Florida, was arrested last month on suspicion of sparking the deadly blaze. He appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom on Oct. 23 and pleaded not guilty to federal charges for destruction of property by means ...