Since the catastrophic Los Angeles firestorm destroyed 6,800 houses and businesses in the Pacific Palisades, inquisitive people in L.A. have wondered if a fire that firefighters allegedly put out a week before continued to smolder underground only to kick up on January 7 when it was breathed back into life by Santa Ana winds. According to the U.S. Attorney in Central California, Bill Essayli, investigators looking into what sparked the fire, the answer to that question is yes, but there are other considerations, which we'll get to in a moment.
The alleged arsonist is believed to have set his family Bible on fire to spark the flames, admitting months later that he “Burned the Bible I had literally.”
Indeed, he admitted to ChatGPT: “I am 28 years old. And... I basically... This just happened. Maybe like... I don’t know, maybe like 3 months ago or something. Like, the realization of all this. I literally burnt the Bible that I had. It felt amazing. I felt so liberated.” About the same time he wrote to a family member that he had, “Burned the Bible I had literally.”
Related: Stunner: Why Was Pacific Palisades Reservoir EMPTY?
In his ChatGPT prompt, he created an image of people who were sanguine while their world was burning up.
Essayli confirmed that federal agents arrested a 29-year-old former Uber driver, who lived in the Palisades at the time, but fled to Florida, for setting a fire that eventually grew into the devastating firestorm responsible for killing 12 people and causing $150 billion in material losses.
The acting U.S. Attorney said that the Lachman fire, set on New Year's Day 2025, was a "holdover fire "that began nearby early in the morning on January 1, 2025, in L.A. City Firefighters allegedly babysat after it was put out before they abandoned it. However, we're told that the "root structure of dense vegetation" is where the fire continued to smolder. Many nearby homeowners worried that firefighters hadn't extinguished the fire completely.
Jonathan Rinderknecht thought he'd set the fire, allegedly using his Bible, according to authorities, and then checked his smartphone to ask ChatGPT if flicking a cigarette that started a fire would be the smoker's fault. The answer was yes. The Uber driver fled down the hill, but the feds say the 29-year-old man saw fire trucks going toward the fire, and turned around to follow them to watch the firefighting. According to the indictment, Rinderknecth "later told investigators that he offered to help the firefighters fight the fire," which investigators concluded was "highly unusual conduct."
For the record, investigators ruled out cigarettes, fireworks, high winds, or light refraction as causes for the conflagration but did determine that "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," as the UCSD camera captured.
Creepily, "Rinderknecht then walked back up the same trail that he had used to climb up and down the hill earlier that night, in order to watch the fire and the firefighters. At approximately 1:02 a.m., [the suspect] used his iPhone to take four short videos of the fire and firefighters, from the same trail," the indictment reads. Among the videos he created were ones in which he memorialized that he'd called 911 multiple times.
Related: DOJ Announces Arrest for Palisades Fire
However, T-Mobile and GPS tracked him to within 30-40 feet of the origin of the fire and confirmed that there was no one else around at the time the fire was started.
Investigators obtained what is known as 'Timing Advance' data from T-Mobile and AT+T to determine what 12 cellphones were in that area during the relevant timeframe. Using this data, investigators were able to determine that no cell phones using those providers were in the vicinity of the Hidden Buddha clearing during the relevant time period...and That finding corroborated (1) RINDERKNECHT’s statement to investigators at his January 24 interview that he did not see anyone else when he was at the top of the hill that night
Investigators also spoke with the suspect on January 24, and he admitted to facts that were not in the public domain.
Things are looking shaky for the Uber driver, but there are even more questions for the Los Angeles firefighters who failed to keep watch on that known smoldering fire. Worse yet, it was deemed unconscionable that no firefighting equipment was pre-deployed before the predicted firestorms.
Those are questions for Karen Bass, her DEI hires at the LAFD, and at the Department of Water and Power, who knew of the crucial fire warnings and failed to pre-deploy firefighters or fill the reservoir near Palisades. As a result, the fire hydrants went dry from the lack of water pressure.
Worse, Gavin Newsom has some questions to answer. An attorney for several homeowners in the Palisades noted that the land identified as the ignition point was state-owned land that was not cut back or watched by pre-deployed firefighters before this predicted firestorm.
Many crucial first responders are still working during the #SchumerShutDown, but many Democrats are spending their days making silly TikTok videos to make it look like they're doing something. Who can possibly afford this lazy bunch of do-nothing louts?
However, the #SchumerShutdown continues and is so bad for Dems that PJ Media is offering a special #SchumerShutdown VIP Membership for 74% OFF! Click on this link and use promo code POTUS47.