A Florida man who was working as an Uber driver in Pacific Palisades, California, on New Year’s Eve has been charged with allegedly setting a fire that smoldered for a week before erupting on Jan. 7 and becoming one of the deadliest, most destructive wildfires in California history.
Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, also known as “Jonathan Rinder,” and “Jon Rinder” was arrested in Florida on Tuesday and charged with destruction of property by means of fire, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced Wednesday.
“The complaint alleges that a single person’s recklessness caused one of the worst fires Los Angeles has ever seen, resulting in death and widespread destruction in Pacific Palisades,” Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement. “While we cannot bring back what victims lost, we hope this criminal case brings some measure of justice to those affected by this horrific tragedy.”
A dozen deaths have been attributed to the Palisades fire, and homeowners have filed more than 16,000 claims with insurers, with more than $12.4 billion in claims paid to date, according to the latest numbers from the California Department of Insurance.
Luxury real estate broker Anthony Marguleas, founder of Amalfi Estates, has estimated that only about 30 percent of the 6,800 homes that burned down in the Palisades Fire will be rebuilt. Dozens of celebrities lost their homes, including Jeff Bridges, Barbara Corcoran, John Goodman, Anthony Hopkins, Eugene Levy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Mandy Moore.
Jonathan Rinderknecht
Prosecutors allege that Rinderknecht started a smaller fire, the Lachman Fire, on New Year’s Eve after dropping off a passenger in Pacific Palisades and walking up a trail to a hilltop area on land owned by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority.
Rinderknecht reported the fire to authorities, and the Lachman Fire was “quickly suppressed” by firefighters. But “unbeknownst to anyone, the fire continued to smolder and burn underground within the root structure of dense vegetation,” prosecutors said.
Investigators have since determined that the Palisades Fire was a “holdover” fire — a continuation of the Lachman Fire that Rinderknecht is accused of starting.
“On January 7, heavy winds caused the underground fire to surface and spread above ground in what became known as the Palisades Fire, which caused widespread damage in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles,” prosecutors said.
Rinderknecht, a Melbourne, Florida, resident, is accused of lying about where he was when he reported the Lachman Fire.
In a Jan. 24 interview, Rinderknecht said “he was near the bottom of a hiking trail when he first saw the fire and called 911, but geolocation data from his iPhone carrier showed that he was standing in a clearing 30 feet from the fire as it rapidly grew,” authorities allege.
The allegations against Rinderknecht have not been proven in court, and he is presumed innocent pending a trial.
If convicted, Rinderknecht would face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, the Department of Justice said.
Another fire in Los Angeles County that also started on Jan. 7, the Eaton Fire, killed 19 and generated more than 22,000 residential property claims with $6.5 billion in claims to date.
Together, the Palisades and Eaton fires caused more than $20.6 billion in losses, based on residential, commercial property and auto claims paid to date, according to the California Department of Insurance.
