A federal judge in Florida has ordered Jonathan Rinderknecht, the man accused of starting California’s deadly Palisades Fire, to remain in jail. The decision came after prosecutors raised concerns about his mental health and described him as having traits of an arsonist.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathan Hill said he was concerned about Rinderknecht’s mental state and his ability to travel to California for future court hearings. Authorities allege that Rinderknecht, who previously lived in Southern California, started a small fire on New Year’s Day. The fire smoldered underground before reigniting nearly a week later on January 7, spreading through Pacific Palisades and Malibu.
The blaze resulted in 12 deaths in hillside neighborhoods and was one of two major fires that day, which together killed more than 30 people and destroyed over 17,000 homes and buildings in Los Angeles County.
During a hearing in Orlando, Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel Lyons argued that Rinderknecht posed a flight risk because he had family ties to France and spoke French. Lyons also noted that he had become isolated, spent significant time on ChatGPT, and worked as an Uber driver.
ATF special agent Thomas Harrison testified that Rinderknecht moved into his sister’s home in Brevard County, Florida five months ago. His sister and brother-in-law have since moved out and begun eviction proceedings due to safety concerns after Rinderknecht allegedly threatened to burn their house down during an argument. Police were called but no arrests or charges followed these incidents. Harrison also stated that Rinderknecht’s father contacted police after his son claimed he had a gun for self-defense.
Lyons suggested any potential sentence could be increased because the fire resulted in deaths.
Assistant Federal Defender Aziza Hawthorne argued for her client’s release under strict conditions. She pointed out there were no allegations of physical violence and that Rinderknecht had been seeing a psychiatrist recently. Hawthorne emphasized family support during the proceedings: “He is not a risk to anyone,” she said.
After the hearing, family members declined to speak with reporters.
Rinderknecht will remain at Seminole County Jail until another hearing scheduled for October 17, when prosecutors are expected to present evidence supporting the charges against him.
Authorities said they focused on Rinderknecht as a suspect after interviewing him on January 24. Investigators ruled out other possible causes such as fireworks or lightning by analyzing digital data from his phone and following up on more than 200 leads domestically and internationally.
Kenny Cooper, special agent in charge of the ATF’s Los Angeles Field Division, detailed the investigation: “We literally had agents, with our partners, on their hands and knees crawling through fire debris,” Cooper said. “We collected more than 13,000 items of evidence, including fire debris, digital data, DNA samples.” He added that over 500 scientific tests were conducted at an ATF lab and investigators recreated the fire conditions at the scene.
Cooper addressed questions about how long it took to identify a suspect: “And I highlight this because I know there’s questions on the length that it took us to come to this conclusion.”
He also defended firefighters’ efforts during the initial response: “The person who started this fire is solely to blame,” Cooper said. “I will never blame our brave firefighters when we know how this fire started.”
Interim Los Angeles Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva explained crews worked for 36 hours extinguishing hot spots from the first fire but concluded it was completely out. He noted that holdover fires can persist deep underground undetected by imaging cameras: “So even if someone would have put thermal imaging on it, they would have come up with final extinguishment like our firefighters did,” Villanueva told The Associated Press.
A department report released Wednesday found firefighters lacked sufficient resources and faced communication challenges during the first 36 hours of the Palisades Fire response—factors which hampered their efforts at a critical time. The report also stated not enough resources were pre-deployed despite warnings about severe winds.
