Palisades Fire Bombshell Update: Investigators Claim Agitated Uber Driver Maliciously Started Los Angeles Blaze that Killed 12 People and Caused Millions of Dollars in Damage

Federal agents on Wednesday charged 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht with "maliciously" starting the out-of-control blaze.

According to the official complaint, the Uber driver, who fled to Florida after the rampage, was working on New Year's Eve last year. Passengers noted he appeared especially "agitated and angry" that night.

Shortly before midnight, Rinderknecht, who grew up in France, drove to a federal reserve within the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, and listened to a favorite song of his that featured lyrics dealing with "despair and bitterness."

He walked up a trail to a clearing sometimes referred to as the "Hidden Buddha," and listened to the song again.

Shortly after that, just a few minutes into the new year, cameras in the area detected a fire.

Over the next five minutes, Rinderknecht reportedly called 911 several times, but was unable to get through because his iPhone was out of cellphone range.

When he finally connected with 911, he was at the bottom of the hiking trail and reported the fire. By that point, a nearby resident had already reported the fire to authorities.

While on the phone with 911, Rinderknecht reportedly typed a question into the ChatGPT app on his iPhone, asking, "Are you at fault if a fire is lift [sic] because of your cigarettes?"

Rinderknecht then allegedly fled the scene in his car, just as fire engines raced past him in the opposite direction.

While smoking was considered as a cause of the fire, it was quickly excluded by investigators, who concluded: Although discarded cigarettes can cause wildfires, the weather conditions on December 31, 2024 to January 1, 2025, were inconsistent with this theory.

The investigation did determine that the cause of the fire was "incendiary, i.e., an intentional ignition of a fire in an area or under circumstances where or when there should not be a fire.

"The cause of the fire was determined to be the introduction of an open flame (likely a lighter) to a combustible material such as vegetation or paper."

Riderknecht was arrested and charged with burning federal property, as the fires started on government-owned land.

If convicted, he could face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.