Palisades Fire Arrest Isn’t Closure; It’s Just the Beginning of a Terrible Reckoning – RedState
Following Wednesday’s arrest of Jonathan Rinderknecht in connection with the deadly Palisades fire, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said there was finally some “closure” for Pacific Palisades residents, but nothing could be further from the truth. The arrest provided answers about the cause of the fire, but raised many more questions.
A criminal complaint accusing Rinderknecht of intentionally starting the fire says it started just after midnight on Jan. 1, 2025, and was brought under control by Los Angeles firefighters within a day or two, according to the LAFD official who spoke. A firebrand settled in dense vegetation and smoldered and burned in the roots underground for nearly a week until January 7, when the predicted windstorm brought embers to the surface. By the next morning, most of the Pacific Palisades was gone.
DIVE DEEPER: Palisades fire determined to be arson; Arrest made
According to federal investigators, Rinderknecht used a lighter found in his glove compartment to start the fire, and the fire was not started by teenagers setting off fireworks for the New Year, as rumored.
Ed Norskog, former chief of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s arson unit, told the Los Angeles Times:
“This affidavit puts the onus on the firefighters. There needs to be a commission looking into why this rekindled fire was allowed to reignite.
“The arsonist started the first fire, but firefighters have a duty to take certain steps proactively.”
From the beginning, residents of Pacific Palisades suspected that the Palisades Fire was not a new fire, but a resurgence of the January 1 fire. At a community meeting on January 16, 2025, LAFD Deputy Chief Joe Everett told residents that the January 1 fire “was out” by January 7.
On January 16, 2025, LAFD Deputy Chief Everett claimed that the January 1 Lachman Fire was “put out” by January 3 and that “if it is determined to be the cause” of the Palisades Fire, “it would be a phenomenon.”
“On the fire on New Year’s Eve. I wasn’t there. I was out of town. However,… pic.twitter.com/BGfbRcTqx8
– Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) October 8, 2025
Everett said:
“At the fire on New Year’s Eve. I wasn’t there. I was out of town. However, when that fire broke out, I had — myself and my deputy chief were on the phone, talking and talking to the incident commander.
“I can tell you that the people on that fireground were highly trained and trustworthy. They also did what they call a cold drag operation into the next day. We maintained a patrol for over 36 hours. We kept the hose on the hill, we call it “we kept it level just to go back and continue the patrol. This fire was out.”
“If it’s determined to be the cause, it would be a phenomenon.”
The LAFD’s after-action report, released Wednesday evening (which will be analyzed in a future article), indicates that the latest company obtained its authorization even earlier:
At approximately 3:38 a.m., progress was halted and fire lines effectively contained the fire at approximately 4:51 a.m. Resources remained in patrol status for an additional 12 hours until the last company was cleared at 4:41 p.m. on January 1, 2025.
This Instagram Reel from CBS News features photos of a hiker taken mid-morning on Jan. 1, hours after the LAFD announced the fire had been brought under control, showing the ground still smoldering — and shows smoke coming from that area of the Temescal Ridge Trail in satellite images taken the morning of Jan. 7, just before the fire was reported by residents.
It’s common practice for wildland firefighters to patrol a recently burned area for days or weeks to look for signs of resurgence, ATF Special Agent in Charge Kenny Cooper said at a news conference Wednesday, referring to his time as a firefighter:
We would go and delete [the fire]then every day, for weeks, we patrolled those areas to make sure they didn’t reignite. If we notice signs of smoke or heat, we will provide resources for this purpose. So, I know it’s a common practice, and it’s just a very difficult fire burning underground.
This was not done in this case, according to a verified complaint filed by fire victims, and despite the fact that red flag warnings and a fire weather watch were issued beginning January 3, no LAFD or CalFire assets were pre-deployed to Pacific Palisades on January 7. revive.
The closest crews to the Lachman Fire were at Fire Station 23 and Fire Station 69, three to four miles downstream from where the fire reignited. According to incident logs, it took 19 minutes for the first engine to arrive on scene; this crew immediately requested 10 additional engines.
A minute after this request, LAFD Capt. Brandon Ruedy informed dispatch that the fire “ha[d] the potential to cultivate over 200 acres in the next 20 minutes. »
Regardless of exactly how the fire started and the LAFD’s failures to ensure the fire was extinguished, nearly 50 years of vegetation growth that grew in Topanga State Park without any clearing, let alone controlled burning, contributed greatly to the intensity, rapid spread and lethality of the fire – and it’s the fault of Newsom and the weirdos environmentalists he treated. Then, of course, there are the failures of the LADWP to ensure there was water to fight the fire and to de-energize the power lines once the fire started, and numerous other failures on the part of the LAFD and LADWP.
And while Palisades Fire victims are grateful to finally know the origin and cause of the fire, they are angry and say they still have many questions. Jon Brown, who attended Wednesday’s press conference, told the LA Times:
“I think it’s only going to infuriate people, to be honest. They think they did something by finding the guy who did it, but they’re really going to fan the flames on what’s really pissing everyone off. Why wasn’t the fire put out on the 1st?”
Darrin Hurwitz, who hiked the Temescal Ridge Trail the morning of Jan. 7 and smelled smoke around 8:15 a.m. that day, said he saw no prepositioned fire trucks that day, no firefighters near the scene of the Lachman Fire and did not observe any aerial assets. Her home and her children’s school, Marquez Elementary, burned. Additionally, he said it wouldn’t have been difficult to have at least some resources on the ground near that burn scar:
“It’s not remote. The location where the fire started is accessible from the Highlands. It’s a very short drive. … It wouldn’t have been difficult to deploy firefighting resources to the ground in advance.”
“I think it’s troubling and unfortunate that anyone would intentionally start a fire. Obviously, I’m not discounting the criminal activity that may have taken place here. But I think the biggest concerns will be around fire prevention and firefighting.
“Any information that helps determine the cause of the fire and prevent future fires is obviously important, but in this case the determination that the fire was a resurgence of a small fire that was reportedly extinguished six days prior raises far more questions than answers. What protocols were in place to ensure that the Lachman Fire was completely extinguished? Were they followed? Were resources deployed appropriately? adequate in the area on January 7 given the extreme wind warnings?
Spencer Pratt, a former reality TV star who lost both his family home (with wife Heidi Montag) and his childhood home in Palisades, and who became a leading advocate for fire victims, sent a message to Gavin Newsom:
“Gavin Newsom is desperate for you to leave the Palisades Fire behind. He is so desperate that he doesn’t realize that today’s arson arrest proved the fundamental point of our case against Newsom and the State of California. Today’s arrest proves that Newsom’s Topanga State Park let a fire smolder for a week without doing anything to quell it. This is exactly what we alleged in our lawsuit, and he is so stupid he doesn’t realize it helps us. pursue him. I think the hair gel is reaching his brain cells.
“He says this brings closure to the victims because he wants you to stop talking about the fire that’s on his hands. It’s not closure, buddy. It’s just the beginning. Thanks to the DOJ and the ATF for finally releasing the evidence that proves our case against Gavin Newsom is relevant.”
Oh and isn’t it cute that NEWSOM did their press conference from East Los Angeles? Why is he talking about the Palisades in East LA? It’s because he’s too cowardly to show himself. pic.twitter.com/aAH7mFrtfO
-Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) October 8, 2025
This story will definitely continue.
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