After all the blather from California's Gov. Gavin Newsom about global warming starting the Palisades fire, it turns out the fire came about because of an arsonist. That's the conclusion of investigators, who made an arrest in the matter.

The 29-year-old Uber driver now arrested for arson in that fire reportedly hiked to a trailhead near Topanga State Park around midnight on Dec. 31, 2024.

Then, according to investigators, Jonathan Rinderknecht then used a lighter to ignite the bone-dry brush, causing flames to spread rapidly and race toward nearby homes as Rinderknecht watched.

That fire was extinguished by the Los Angeles Fire Department but apparently continued burning in root systems underground.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle:

It then rekindled on Jan. 7 and grew into the Palisades Fire, one of the most destructive wildfires in California history, killing 12 people and laying waste to the affluent Los Angeles community that is home to many members of Hollywood royalty. Thousands of people fled the flames.

The Chronicle again:

Months before the Lachman Fire ignited, Rinderknecht confided in a family member that he had burned a Bible, according to the affidavit, written and signed by an investigator with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, whose name was redacted. He was reportedly exhilarated by the experience and confided in ChatGPT: "I literally burnt the Bible that I had. It felt amazing. I felt so liberated."

Just because you gleefully burn a Bible doesn’t mean the truths it contains no longer apply or exist. And, in this case, doing so made many thousands of others go through hell.

Rinderknecht needlessly yet deliberately subjected all of these folks to an inferno on Earth.

In so doing, he may have sentenced himself to a hellish prison and eternal inferno.

How “liberating” is that?!

Image: Oregon State University, via Flickr // CC BY 4.0 Deed