00:00In other news, authorities in California have charged a 29-year-old man with starting a deadly fire
00:05that erupted into the most destructive blaze in Los Angeles history.
00:10Prosecutors say he likely used a lighter to start a fire that smouldered underground
00:15only to flare up days later, killing 12 people.
00:19Well, for more, let's cross live now to our correspondent in LA, Waseem Kournay.
00:24Waseem, firstly, what more have we learned about how these deadly fires may have begun and then spread?
00:34Yeah, big news this morning.
00:35The arrest of 29-year-old Jonathan Rindernacht, who was taken into custody by authorities in Florida.
00:41He's accused of having started the fire that later erupted just a few days later into the devastating Palisades fire.
00:47The U.S. attorney in Florida, Bill Assaylee, called it the recklessness of a single person
00:52that led to one of the worst fires that Los Angeles has ever seen.
00:56Rindernacht is accused of having started a fire in the early minutes of New Year's Day, January 1st,
01:02on top of a hill over the Pacific Palisades neighborhood at the top of a hiking trail.
01:08He was an Uber driver at the time, and he's believed to have dropped passengers in that area just moments before.
01:14He lit up a fire using matches and paper and then tried calling 911, but he was outside of cell coverage.
01:21It's not until he got down to the bottom of the hiking trail that he was able to reach firefighters,
01:26by which time a neighbor had already done so.
01:28He then turned his car around and followed fire trucks trying to extinguish that fire on New Year's Day
01:34in the overnight hours, efforts that he filmed using his iPhone.
01:39And then authorities believe that although that fire appeared to be extinguished on New Year's Day,
01:44those powerful winds, rather the smoke continued to smolder underground in those roots,
01:51and then it was reignited by those powerful winds in that powerful storm, winds of over 100 kilometers per hour.
01:57Seven days later, on January 7th, authorities say they also found AI-generated images on Rindernacht's iPhone,
02:05showing pictures of cities and forests on fire and people fleeing.
02:09And authorities say that if he is found guilty, he risks up to 20 years in prison.
02:15And, Waseem, 10 months on, how have those who are worst affected by those fires
02:20been able to rebuild their lives and their homes?
02:24Yeah, and Sharon, it's important to remind viewers also that the Palisades fire
02:28was only one of two major fires that erupted almost simultaneously the same day.
02:33A total of 31 people were killed in the Palisades and the Eaton fire,
02:38that one erupting on the other side of town in the city of Altadena.
02:41More than 18,000 structures were destroyed, hundreds of billions of dollars in damages.
02:47Nowadays, when you drive around the Pacific Palisades, it doesn't look like a war zone anymore,
02:51but it almost looks like a barren wasteland.
02:54All of the lots have been cleared of their ruins.
02:56There is some rebuilding going, and authorities have been very clear about one thing.
03:00They want that rebuilding to go as quickly as possible.
03:04Local, state, and federal authorities have removed a majority of the red tape requirements
03:10under several environmental and zoning laws to try to allow that rebuilding to happen
03:15as quickly as possible.
03:16Authorities across all levels of government, again, local, state, and federal levels of government,
03:21have one thing in mind.
03:22They want everything to be rebuilt and ready by the time the Summer Olympics come around
03:26to Los Angeles in 2028.
03:29Waseem, thanks so much for bringing us that update.
03:32That is Waseem Corné, our correspondent in LA.
Comments