Spencer Pratt slams LA officials after feds finally confirm Palisades Fire was sparked by earlier blaze

LOS ANGELES — Reality star Spencer Pratt is calling for state and local officials to be held accountable for the Palisades Fire after federal prosecutors finally revealed Wednesday something many residents long suspected — that it was sparked by a blaze started days earlier that was never fully put out.

“Our lawyers months ago told the court what caused the Palisades Fire, and today the Department of Justice has proven us right. It was a rekindle of the New Year’s Eve Lachman Fire, and wasn’t properly contained by LA city fire,” the former “The Hills” cast member, who lost his house in the Palisades inferno, said on TikTok.

“The city left it to burn and the state left it to burn for nearly a week on their property and they’re now on the hook for the dangerous conditions that led to the destruction of my town. Told you!”

LA Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom were both lambasted for their leadership during the fire, as well as for failing to prevent it in the first place.

The info, which was previously reported in the weeks after the Jan. 7 Palisades fire, came out when federal prosecutors charged ex Uber driver Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, with setting the earlier Lachman Fire on Jan. 1.

That fire was quickly knocked down, but prosecutors said it came roaring back to life days later — eventually killing 12 people, destroying nearly 7,000 homes and causing over $150 billion in damage.

Rinderknecht’s arrest confirmed suspicions raised during the investigation into the cause of the blaze, which started at an overlook known as Skull Rock, located on the popular Temescal Ridge hiking trail in the upscale Pacific coast enclave.

Investigators told the Los Angeles Times in January they believed the blaze may have had “human origins,” potentially ignited by fireworks.

Nine months later, authorities now say Rinderknecht “maliciously” set the blaze before fleeing the scene and calling 911 to report it.

Judy Wagner, a former Pacific Palisades resident whose house also burned down in the wildfires, called the official response to the conflagration “mismanaged.”

“I would love for them to find out exactly what happened, but bottom line is it doesn’t matter. It happened. There was a fire, and the bottom line is it was mismanaged in addressing the fire. That’s a fact, no matter who started it,” she told The Post, raising questions about whether others might have been involved besides Rinderknecht.

“It was a disaster that didn’t need to happen, but as far as pinning this all on this person, maybe he did, but I do know that that was a site that a lot of kids congregated in and set off fireworks, which is a high fire area.”

Federal arson charges already carry harsh mandatory minimum sentences ranging from five to 20 years in prison, with even stiffer penalties imposed if injuries or deaths occur.

Rinderknecht, who was interviewed by investigators soon after the blaze but allegedly lied about his involvement at the time, will be transferred back to California to stand trial, authorities said.

The Palisades Fire erupted around the same time as the Eaton Fire, which killed 19 people, but authorities haven’t yet disclosed a cause for that inferno.

City and state officials were savaged for what critics saw as poor decision making and lackluster response to the initial report of the blaze.

Bass, who was also criticized for being in Ghana when the fire ignited, grew combative with reporters when asked to defend her management of the crisis, including fire hydrants running out of water as crews fighting the wildfire tried to connect their hoses.

She also took heat for cutting the Los Angeles Fire Department budget by $17.6 million ahead of the blaze.

Newsom was raked over the coals for reneging on his pledge made on his first day in office in 2019 to overhaul the state’s wildfire prevention readiness, which was supposed to include clearing heaps of dried-out underbrush that had been piling up in the Pacific Palisades hills for years.

Instead, he slashed the state’s fire prevention budget by around $150 million, then grossly inflated the number of acres of brush cleared, claiming 90,000 acres were treated when the true number was closer to 12,000 acres.