"The suspect, who used to work as an Uber driver and lived in the Pacific Palisades at the time, did not enter a plea at a federal court appearance on Wednesday in Orlando.
"Authorities painted a picture of a man singularly focused on a city going up in flames at a news conference Wednesday, saying the suspect repeatedly watched a rap video that included “objects being lit on fire” in the days before allegedly setting the fire.
"The suspect also allegedly prompted ChatGPT to generate a “dystopian painting showing in part a burning forest and a crowd fleeing from it,” in the months before the fire started, Essayli said."
It would be tempting to blame social media or rap. AI use is more symptom I think of an underlying pyromania.
The appropriate answer, of course, is match control. "If it saves one life..."
The authorities have admitted that the Palisade Fire was a rekindle. The responsible Fire Department did not completely extinguish the January 1 Lachman Fire.
ReplyDeleteRiderknecht is responsible for that eight acre fire, which did not damage any structures.
But it appears that the damage attributed to the Palisades fire was caused by firefighter incompetence.
I think there is a possibility that they gave the January 7 rekindle a new name - "Palisades" - to blur the fact that it was actually a continuation the the January 1 Lachman Fire.
Regardless, the Lachman was not properly put it out.
And it should have been rechecked when high winds, during a drought, were forecast.
So reminiscent of the 1991 Oakland fire.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_firestorm_of_1991