A 29-year old man has been arrested on suspicion of having started the Pacific Palisades fire in Los Angeles that killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,000 homes in January. Evidence collected from the suspect Jonathan Rinderknecht’s digital devices included an image he generated on ChatGPT depicting a burning city, according to Justice Department officials.
The Palisades fire scorched more than 23,000 acres and caused about $150 billion in damage. The fires, which lasted for more than three weeks, wiped off whole neighborhoods and destroyed parts of Topanga and Malibu.
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The suspect has been arrested in Florida, and charged with the destruction of property. Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a news conference that “The arrest, we hope, will offer a measure of justice to all those impacted.” Further charges, including murder might follow, according to officials.
Rinderknecht, who has been living and working in California, moved to Florida shortly after the fire, according to authorities. He is scheduled to return to the U.S. District Court in Orlando on Thursday for a bond hearing, but is not expected to enter an official plea until his arraignment hearing in Los Angeles in the coming weeks.
Rinderknecht initially started a fire called the Lachman Fire on New Year’s Day. According to the indictment, he lit it with an open flame after he completed a ride as an Uber driver on New Year’s Eve. Although it was quickly suppressed by firefighters, it continued to smolder underground in the root structure of dense vegetation, according to investigators, before it flared up again above ground in a windstorm.
Authorities state that they have found links between the suspect and the fire on his phone, including videos that he had taken of firefighters trying to put out the flames. The phone showed that he repeatedly called 911 just after midnight on New Year’s Day, but could not get through because of patchy mobile reception on the trailhead. There was a screen recording of him trying to call emergency services and at one point being connected with a dispatcher.
Rinderknecht also asked ChatGPT “Are you at fault if a fire is lift [sic] because of your cigarettes?” Investigators believe he wanted to create evidence of a “more innocent” cause of the fire.
Five months before he allegedly started the fire, Rinderknecht asked ChatGPT to create an image of a “dystopian painting” that included a burning forest and a crowd of people running away from a fire, according to investigators.
California Governor Gavin Newsom called the arrest an important step toward “bringing closure to the thousands of Californians whose lives were upended,” and added that the state was aiding the federal investigation of the fire.