Palisades Fire suspect indicted by federal grand jury
A federal grand jury indicted the 29-year-old Florida man who is accused of starting a blaze that eventually turned into the deadly Palisades Fire in January.
Jonathan Rinderknecht, who lived in the Pacific Palisades in the past, was charged with three counts related to the alleged arson, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. If convicted as charged, Rinderknecht faces a mandatory minimum of five years in federal prison and a maximum sentence of 45 years.
During a press conference last week, federal investigators said Rinderknecht allegedly ignited the Lachman Fire, six days before the Palisades Fire began. While firefighters quickly contained the Lachman Fire to about eight acres, the fire continued to smolder and burn underground roots. Federal prosecutors described it as a "holdover fire" that reignited amid the hurricane-force Santa Ana winds and quickly turned into the Palisades Fire.
Professor Craig Clements, a meteorology professor and director of the Wildfire Research Center at San Jose State University, described this process as a "ground fire."
"What happens is a surface fire, which is typically what we see, in the grass and the shrubs can get put out by firefighters and it's fully contained and everything on the surface has been extinguished," Clements said. "But, it can actually burn into the root system and burn underground, where you would not see any smoke and continue to smolder there for multiple days. A big wind event could then add more oxygen and cause the fire to reignite and bring the fire to the surface."
The Palisades Fire was fully contained on Jan. 31, 24 days after it started. It is the third most destructive fire in state history, with 6,837 structures destroyed and 973 damaged. It is one of the deadliest in Los Angeles County history, killing 12 people and injuring four others.
