A Florida man has been arrested in connection with the Palisades Fire, which tore through Los Angeles in January.
The more than 23,000-acre blaze on January 7 killed 12 people and destroyed nearly 6,900 structures.
Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, is facing a federal charge of destruction of property by means of fire, state prosecutors said, according to CNN.
The suspect was working as an Uber driver at the time and dropped off a passenger on New Year’s Eve before walking up a hiking trail and lighting a fire.
Rinderknecht used ChatGPT to create an image of a ‘burning city’, Bill Essayli, the acting US attorney for Southern California, alleged.
Officials list the cause of the fire as ‘under investigation’ and note it was a ‘holdover’ fire, meaning it erupted from the remnants of an earlier blaze.
City fire department alerts note a fire had been reported on New Year’s Day in the area and was contained.
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