Authorities say they have caught the person responsible for a wildfire that killed 12 people and destroyed over 6,000 homes in the Pacific Palisades in January of this year.
Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, was arrested on Wednesday, October 8 in Florida and charged with destruction of property by means of fire.
According to the U.S. Justice Department, Rinderknecht — who was working as an Uber driver in L.A. — "maliciously” set a blaze on land owned by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) just after midnight on New Year’s Day. Efforts to extinguish the fire were not fully successful. Unbeknownst to firefighters, the blaze continued smoldering underground, igniting the devastating Palisades fire nearly one week later. More than 23,000 acres burned, costing around $150 billion in damages.
“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,” said Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli.
If convicted, Rinderknecht faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years.