ChatGPT image snares suspect in deadly Pacific Palisades fire

A 29-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of starting the Pacific Palisades fire in Los Angeles that killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,000 homes in January.

Evidence collected from Jonathan Rinderknecht's digital devices included an image he generated on ChatGPT depicting a burning city, justice department officials said.

One of the most destructive blazes in LA history, the fire erupted on 7 January near a hiking trail that overlooked the wealthy coastal neighbourhood.

The Eaton Fire, ignited the same day in the LA area, killed another 19 people and razed 9,400 structures. The cause of that fire remains unclear.

The Palisades fire scorched more than 23,000 acres (9,308 hectares) and caused about $150bn (£112bn) in damage.

Wiping out whole neighbourhoods, the conflagration raged for more than three weeks, also ravaging parts of Topanga and Malibu.

Among the thousands of structures destroyed in the fires were the homes of a number of celebrities, including Mel Gibson, Paris Hilton and Jeff Bridges.

Mr Rinderknecht was arrested in Florida on Tuesday and has been charged with destruction of property by means of fire, Acting US Attorney Bill Essayli told a news conference on Wednesday in Los Angeles.

"The arrest, we hope, will offer a measure of justice to all those impacted," Mr Essayli said.

Officials said further charges - including murder - could follow.

Mr Rinderknecht appeared in court in Florida on Wednesday. He did not enter a plea.

He is scheduled to return to the US District Court in Orlando on Thursday for a bond hearing. He is not expected to enter an official plea until his arraignment hearing in Los Angeles in the coming weeks.

Mr Rinderknecht had been living and working in California, and moved to Florida shortly after the fire, according to authorities.

The initial blaze Mr Rinderknecht allegedly started on New Year's Day was called the Lachman fire.

Although it was quickly suppressed by firefighters, it continued to smoulder underground in the root structure of dense vegetation, according to investigators, before it flared up again above ground in a windstorm.

The suspect was familiar with the area because he was a former resident of Pacific Palisades, officials said. He had lived one block away from the Skull Rock Trailhead, where he allegedly started the fire.

He lit it with an open flame after he completed a ride as an Uber driver on New Year's Eve, according to the indictment.

Two passengers rode with Mr Rinderknecht earlier on New Year's Eve. One passenger told investigators he remembered the driver had appeared agitated and angry.

Officials said they had used his phone data to pinpoint his location when the fire initially started on 1 January, but when they pressed him on details he allegedly lied to investigators, claiming he was near the bottom of the trail.

Uber said Mr Rinderknecht wasn't on the popular ride-sharing app at the time of the fire, but the company worked closely with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to help determine his whereabouts using GPS data and other relevant information.

The company also said it removed Mr Rinderknecht's access to its platform as soon as it learned of his suspected involvement in the fire, but it noted he passed his initial background check in 2023 and annual check-ins thereafter.

Authorities said they also found other links between Mr Rinderknecht and the fire on his phone, including videos that Mr Rinderknecht had taken of firefighters trying to put out the flames.

The phone also showed that he repeatedly called 911 just after midnight on New Year's day, but could not get through because of patchy mobile reception on the trailhead. There was a screen recording of him trying to call emergency services and at one point being connected with a dispatcher.

Mr Rinderknecht also asked ChatGPT: "Are you at fault if a fire is lift [sic] because of your cigarettes?"

Investigators said the suspect wanted to "preserve evidence of himself trying to assist in the suppression of the fire".

"He wanted to create evidence regarding a more innocent explanation for the cause of the fire," the indictment said.

Investigators noted that Mr Rinderknecht appeared nervous during their interview with him on 24 January this year, and his carotid artery would pulsate whenever he was asked who had started the fire.

In July 2024, five months before he allegedly set the fire, Mr Rinderknecht asked ChatGPT to create an image of a "dystopian painting" that included a burning forest and a crowd of people running away from a fire, according to investigators.

His prompt to the AI tool included the text: "In the middle [of the painting], hundreds of thousands of people in poverty are trying to get past a gigantic gate with a big dollar sign on it.

"On the other side of the gate and the entire wall is a conglomerate of the richest people.

"They are chilling, watching the world burn down, and watching the people struggle. They are laughing, enjoying themselves, and dancing."

A month before allegedly setting the fire, Mr Rinderknecht allegedly inputted a prompt to ChatGPT that included the text: "I literally burnt the Bible that I had. It felt amazing. I felt so liberated."

An outside review into the fire that was commissioned by Los Angeles County supervisors found that "outdated policies" for sending emergency alerts had delayed evacuation warnings, among other official failings.

California Governor Gavin Newsom called the arrest an important step toward "bringing closure to the thousands of Californians whose lives were upended".

He added that the state was supporting the federal investigation into the fire.

Hours after Mr Rinderknecht's arrest, the Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD) released its long-awaited After-Action Review Report (AARR) on the Palisades Fire, which detailed the first 36 hours of the department's response.

The report - meant to identify lessons learned from the response and to enhance preparedness and response for future wildfires - found firefighters did not have enough resources for the red flag weather conditions and hurricane-force winds that fuelled the fire.

LAFD listed nearly 100 challenges that firefighters faced during the Palisades fire, which burned for 25 days and forced many fire responders to work for 36 to 48 hours straight.

"Responders were faced with the inevitable consequences of a perfect storm: dry vegetation, unrelenting and unusual wind activity, significant ember cast, a landscape packed with combustible vegetation, large vulnerable structures, a diminishing water supply, and a loss of aerial suppression support," the report said.

Additionally, firefighters were unable to secure the origin of the fire, faced issues recalling off-duty firefighters to respond and blamed fire chiefs with little experience for handling a blaze of that magnitude.

Delays in communicating evacuation orders and issues with arranging effective evacuations and traffic also created problems.

LAFD Interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva, who replaced sacked fire chief Kristin Crowley, said that he hoped the report "strengthens public confidence in the Los Angeles Fire Department's readiness to respond to any future wildfires".

The department, he said, has since implemented several new processes to protect the city, including upgrading communications technology.

Newsom's office has also requested a review by the nation's leading fire safety researchers.