A 29-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of starting the Pacific Palisades fire in Los Angeles that killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,000 homes in January.
Evidence collected from Jonathan Rinderknecht's digital devices included an image he created on ChatGPT depicting a city on fire, Justice Department officials said.
The most destructive fire in Los Angeles history. It broke out on Jan. 7 near a hiking trail overlooking an affluent coastal area.
The Eaton Fire, which broke out in the Los Angeles area the same day, killed 19 more people and destroyed 9,400 structures. The cause of this fire remains unclear. Rinderknecht is scheduled to appear in court in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday.
The fire burned more than 23,000 acres (9,308 hectares) and caused an estimated $150 billion (£112 billion) in damage.
Destroying entire neighborhoods, the fire raged for more than three weeks, also devastating parts of Topanga and Malibu.
Among the thousands of structures destroyed by the fires were the homes of a number of celebrities, including Mel Gibson, Paris Hilton and Jeff Bridges.
Mr. Rinderknecht was arrested in Florida on Tuesday and charged with destruction of property by arson, acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essaily said at a news conference Wednesday in Los Angeles.
“We hope this arrest brings justice to all victims,” Mr. Essayli said.
Officials said more charges, including murder, could follow.
The original fire, which Rinderknecht allegedly started on New Year's Day, was called the Lachman Fire.
Although firefighters quickly put it out, it continued to smolder underground in the root structure of dense vegetation before flaring up again above ground during the storm, investigators said.
Ministry of JusticeThe suspect was familiar with the area as he was a former resident of Pacific Palisades, officials said. He lived one block from the Skull Rock Trail where he allegedly started the fire.
After the fires, he moved to Florida.
According to the indictment, he started the fire with an open flame after taking a ride as an Uber driver on New Year's Eve.
Two passengers had traveled with Mr Rinderknecht earlier on New Year's Eve. One passenger told investigators he remembered the driver appearing agitated and angry.
Officials said they used his phone data to pinpoint his location when the fire started Jan. 1, but when they pressed him for details, he allegedly lied to investigators, saying he was near the end of the trail.
Ministry of JusticeOn his phone they found videos taken by Rinderknecht of firefighters trying to put out the flames.
They also discovered that just after midnight on New Year's Day, he repeatedly called 911 but was unable to get through due to spotty cell phone reception at the trailhead.
There was a screen recording on his phone of him trying to call 911 and at some point being connected to a dispatcher.
Mr Rinderknecht also asked ChatGPT: “Are you at fault if there is a fire? [sic] because of your cigarettes?
Investigators said the suspect wanted to “preserve evidence that he was trying to help put out the fire.”
“He wanted to gather evidence for a more innocent explanation for the cause of the fire,” the indictment says.
Investigators noted that Rinderknecht appeared nervous when interviewed on Jan. 24 this year, and his carotid artery pulsed whenever he was asked who started the fire.
In July 2024, five months before he allegedly set the fire, Mr Rinderknecht asked ChatGPT to create an image of a “dystopian painting” showing a forest on fire and a crowd of people running from the fire.
His AI tooltip included the text: “In the middle [of the painting]hundreds of thousands of people living in poverty are trying to get through a giant gate with a big dollar sign on it.
“On the other side of the gate and the entire wall is a conglomerate of the richest people.
“They relax, watch the world burn, and watch people struggle. They laugh, have fun and dance.”
A month before the alleged arson, Mr. Rinderknecht allegedly entered a tip into ChatGPT containing the text: “I literally burned the Bible I had. It was amazing. I felt so liberated.”
An external review of the fire commissioned by Los Angeles County leaders found that, among other official deficiencies, “outdated rules” for sending emergency alerts led to delays in evacuation warnings.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the arrest an important step toward “peace for thousands of Californians whose lives have been upended.”
He added that the state supports the federal investigation into the fire and is awaiting an “independent impact report” that was prepared by the nation's leading fire researchers.
