The Lachman fire in the Palisades ignited days before the Palisades fire. Even then, it prompted suspicion that it led to the catastrophic Palisades fire.
The arrest of a 29-year-old Florida man for starting what eventually became the Palisades fire shed more light Monday on firefighters’ suppression efforts, while affirming, for many, suspicions that local residents have had for months: that a smaller blaze, drive by fierce winds on Jan. 1 reignited a week later into the most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles history.
Jonathan Rinderknecht, a former resident of the Palisades, was charged with destruction of property by means of fire, according to the 24-page federal criminal complaint against him.
Authorities charged him with starting the Lachman fire on the morning of Jan.1 on federal property within the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, as well as property owned by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority and California State Parks.
According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, authorities found that the Palisades fire was a “holdover” fire – a continuation of the Lachman fire that began early in the morning on New Year’s Day 2025.
Prosecutors on Wednesday said firefighters quickly suppressed the Lachman fire, but that “unbeknownst to anyone the fire continued to smolder and burn underground within the root structure of dense vegetation,” according to the complaint.
On Jan. 7, fierce winds reignited the Lachman fire, according to special agent Kenny Cooper of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the lead agency in the nine-month investigation.
And that would explode into what became the Palisades fire, raging for 25 days, destroying more than 23,000 acres, killing 12 and burning about 6,800 structures in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles and in Malibu, according to prosecutors with the U.S. Department of Justice.
The allegations still need to make their way through the judicial system. Federal prosecutors will need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the Palisades fire indeed grew from the blaze that broke out six days earlier.
But the suggestion that the initial blaze smoldered did not escape the notice of residents and leaders in the area on Wednesday.
Some questioned why, if what prosecutors say was true, that the first, smaller fire was able to smolder. Others, including local leaders, stopped short of criticizing the fire department. Some residents were just getting word of the earlier fire. Some said it raised questions over the resources the department ultimately devoted to the blaze, once Jan. 7 rolled around.
For Blake Armstrong, 39, whose home at Tahitian Terrace mobile park on Pacific Coast Highway was one of the first structures to burn in the fire, news of the arrest was a shock.
“The nexus between the fact he started a fire on Jan. 1 and it was reignited seems attenuated to me as to his intent, but I look forward to seeing what the evidence is,” he said.
Ultimately, authorities say firefighters did what they could, and it was the suspect who is responsible for the catastrophe that ensued.
Palisades fire survivor Denise Doyen agreed, saying she saw the unprecedented wind conditions that burned her home, along with 17 others on her street, and watched as firefighters on the ground and planes and helicopters above fought the blaze.
