The Lachman Fire in Topanga State Park could be seen from Santa Monica.
The ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) started an investigation into the January 2025 Palisades Fire. Nine months later they concluded it was a holdover fire from the January 1 Lachman Fire and then arrested Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, for starting that fire with an open flame. He pleaded not guilty to three federal arson charges.
His attorney Steven A. Haney, Sr. contacted Circling the News and answered questions about the report and the charges and information that was released in discovery of the criminal case.
Haney was asked about fireworks. Early on, many Palisadians thought that the Lachman Fire was started by fireworks. One report noted that “People living in the area tell KTLA 5 they believe the Lachman fire was started by fireworks. “I heard a loud bang and saw a white flash to my backside,” Ari Sallus tells KTLA 5 of what he heard and saw that early morning. “Someone lit fireworks and it started a fire.”
That was dismissed by ATF which supposedly said there were fireworks that night, just not in that area.
But Haney said that in discovery there were multiple residents near Skull Rock trailhead that heard and saw fireworks at around 12:14 a.m. which was about the time the fire started.
Haney said even one of the local firefighters heard a “mortar” [possibly an M-80] go off near Buddha Hill shortly before the fire.
Haney has a statement from a security guard who heard the fireworks at the Skull Rock trailhead immediately before the fire started and then saw four kids with hoodies running away immediately afterwards.
Haney said that in the ATF report “the Origin and Cause carefully omitted all the evidence supportive of fireworks to be the cause to support their false narrative of an ‘open flame,’” which his client denies.
He said his client, an Uber driver, who previously lived in the neighborhood, finished his last drive of the night, and then hiked up the trail he had hiked numerous times before to watch the fireworks go off around the City. Rinderknecht got near the top, saw that with the fog/cloud cover he wouldn’t be able to see anything, lit a cigarette and then started back down.
He saw a flame go up in that area, and immediately tried calling 911, which he did 13 times. He thought maybe it was his cigarette that caught fire, and googled if he could be held responsible. Once at the bottom of the trail, he waited until the fire crew arrived.
His lawyer pointed out that his client had never been in trouble with the law. Haney wondered why the other eyewitnesses about the fireworks were not interviewed in further depth by ATF.
Haney said his client is innocent and that this might be an attempt by the State and City to avoid millions in liability by blaming an UBER driver.
“The fact the fire investigation commenced some 14 days after the Lachman Fire rendered the entire cause and origin investigation flawed as the scene was not only stale, but entirely corrupted by a lack of presentation of the scene,” Haney said.
If anyone has information about the four youth in hoodies that fled after a big boom was heard around 12:14 a.m. on January 1, 2025, please reach out to Steven A. Haney, Sr. (248) 414-1470. (This editor remembers someone sent me a photo last year, but I no longer have it.) Or if you heard or saw fireworks near the Highlands, it will be helpful for his client’s defense. He said his client is being held in one of the worst jails in the country for something he did not do – an 8-acre brushfire in the Highlands that did not damage homes or other nearby structures.
Haney has filed a Motion to Suppress evidence that is to be heard on February 11, 2026, challenging his claims that no probable cause existed that his client ever intentionally set the January 1 Lachman Fire.