Suspect charged with igniting deadly Los Angeles Palisades Fire

A man was arrested in Florida on charges of intentionally igniting what would become California’s devastating Palisades Fire, which killed 12 people and wiped out a wealthy enclave of Los Angeles at the start of the year, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday. According to prosecutors, Jonathan Rinderknecht started a fire near a hiking trail in the mountains near Pacific Palisades a few minutes after midnight on January 1 after he completed a
shift driving an Uber car.
Los Angeles firefighters had thought they had quickly extinguished that blaze, known as the Lachman Fire. But it erupted anew on January 7 after smoldering underground for a week, becoming the Palisades Fire, according to federal investigators.
The fire scorched more than 23,000 acres (9,308 hectares), decimating Pacific Palisades, a mostly wealthy residential neighborhood overlooking the ocean.