LA Fire Suspect Angry He Had No Date for New Year’s, US Says

Prosecutors said the man they charged with starting the deadly 2025 Palisades Fire in Los Angeles was upset about a failed relationship and not having New Year’s Eve plans just before he set a small blaze which rekindled six days later.

Jonathan Rinderknecht, 30, who is set to go to trial June 8, “exhibited extreme anger, indignation, and frustration about being unable to find companionship on New Year’s Eve,” prosecutors in the office of Los Angeles US Attorney Bill Essayli said in a court filing. They said he tried and failed to make plans for that night with two other people.