Arson Expert: Palisades Fire was continuation of Lachman Blaze

LOS ANGELES (KESQ) - A senior fire analyst today refuted defense arguments in the federal arson trial of Jonathan Rinderknecht that the Lachman and Palisades fires in January 2025 were two separate events.

Testifying for the prosecution, certified fire investigator Derek Hill told the jury in downtown Los Angeles that the Lachman Fire that began on Jan. 1 that year burned underground after firefighters appeared to douse the flames. It then exploded into view six days later as the Palisades Fire that destroyed billions of dollars of property and killed a dozen people, he said.   

Rinderknecht, 30, a dual French and U.S. citizen, faces up to 45 years behind bars if found guilty of three arson counts: destruction of property by means of fire, arson affecting property used in interstate commerce, and timber set afire.

The trial in Los Angeles federal court is in its second week.   

The defendant's attorney, Steven Haney, maintains that the Lachman Fire was set by fireworks and the Palisades Fire could have been lit by an unknown person.

Asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Williams if the defense attorney is correct that the fires were entirely unconnected, Hill responded, "He is not. ... We were able to determine that (Palisades) was a holdover fire from Lachman."

On Monday, prosecutors showed the jury photos taken by cameras operated in the area by UC San Diego showing the first images of the Lachman Fire before firefighters arrived.

Kevin Miner, an explosives enforcement officer with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, earlier refuted a defense theory that nearby New Year's Eve fireworks lit the Lachman blaze.

"It wasn't caused by any type of firework,'' Miner testified, adding that no aerial fireworks were seen in surveillance photos of the area.   

Additionally, Rinderknecht told investigators that he saw no fireworks in the area where the Lachman Fire started near a clearing called Hidden Buddha close to the Palisades neighborhood of the Summit, according to federal prosecutors.

Last week, ATF special agent Michael Montevidoni testified of Rinderknecht's cell phone activity on Jan. 1, 2025, when the small brush fire began. According to the agent, Rinderknecht made over a dozen calls to 911 starting from various points close to the spot where the fire began at 12:12 a.m., and shot video of the flames and firefighters at the scene after first driving away, and then turning around to follow a fire truck back up the hill.   

Prosecutors showed the jury a five-foot 3-D scale model of the hillside representing where the fire started as well as the trail leading to the spot and the place below where Rinderknecht parked his car before midnight on New Year's Eve 2025.

The jury also saw about a dozen black-and-white surveillance photos taken from a nearby water tank which showed the hillside trail and the placement of Rinderknecht's phone in increments of mere moments as he made his way back down the trail to his car while calling 911 to report the fire.

Meanwhile, the progression of the fire, revealed as a white glow in the series of photos, was increasing by the second.   

On Jan. 7, 2025, hurricane-force Santa Ana winds caused the underground fire to surface and spread above ground in what became known as the Palisades Fire. The most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles city history, it burned 23,448 acres and ruined much of the exclusive Pacific Palisades community, destroying about 6,800 structures and killing 12 people.   

Using witness statements, video surveillance, cell phone data and analysis of fire dynamics and patterns at the scene, among other things, law enforcement determined that Rinderknecht lit a fire in the chaparral using a green Bic lighter investigators later recovered from his car, setting the Lachman Fire just after midnight on Jan. 1, 2025, on federal land, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew O' Brien said.

The jury heard that on the evening of Dec. 31, 2024, Rinderknecht was working as an Uber driver. Two passengers he drove on separate trips between 10:15 and 11:15 p.m. that night later told law enforcement that they remembered Rinderknecht appeared agitated and angry, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

O'Brien said Rinderknecht was depressed and angry that night because he was alone on New Year's Eve and had been rejected by an ex-girlfriend as well as an ex-boyfriend, whom he had once lived with in the Palisades.   

In pretrial hearings, U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang ruled that the defense may not attempt to shift the blame for the Palisades Fire to the L.A. Fire Department, which has been blamed for allegedly failing to completely extinguish the Lachman Fire.