Jonathan Rinderknecht has been charged with allegedly lighting the deadly Los Angeles Pacific Palisades fire earlier this year.

The 29-year-old was arrested in Florida on charges of intentionally igniting the fire which killed 12 people and wiped out a wealthy enclave of Los Angeles, the US Justice Department said on Wednesday.

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

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

Mr Rinderknecht

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