From Global News.

A man was arrested in Florida on charges of intentionally igniting what would become California’s devastating Palisades Fire, which killed 12 people and wiped out a wealthy enclave of Los Angeles at the start of the year, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday.

According to prosecutors, Jonathan Rinderknecht started a fire near a hiking trail in the mountains near Pacific Palisades a few minutes after midnight on Jan. 1, after he completed a shift driving an Uber.

Los Angeles firefighters thought they had quickly extinguished that blaze, known as the Lachman Fire. But it erupted anew on Jan. 7 after smoldering underground for a week, becoming the Palisades Fire, according to federal investigators.

Rinderknecht, 29, repeatedly called 911 on January 1 before successfully connecting to report the blaze, according to a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. The fire scorched more than 23,000 acres (9,308 hectares), decimating Pacific Palisades, a mostly wealthy residential neighbourhood overlooking the ocean.

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