A 29 year-old man has been arrested and charged with starting the blaze that became the Palisades fire, which killed 12 and destroyed more than 6,800 structures in Los Angeles in January.

Jonathan Rinderknecht was arrested on Tuesday and charged with destruction of property by means of fire. Investigators allege that Rinderknecht intentionally started what became the Lachman fire soon after midnight on Jan. 1. The fire burned underground before eventually becoming the Palisades fire, which broke out on Jan. 7.

Rinderknecht, who once lived in the Pacific Palisades, generated an image on ChatGPT months before the fire, depicting what Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli described as “a dystopian painting showing in part a burning forest and a crowd fleeing from it.” The suspect, inve

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