Photo: JOSH EDELSON / AFP / Getty Images
For the latest on all the fires affecting Southern California visit Fire.ca.gov. For LA County visit LACounty.gov/emergency or LAFD.org/alerts. For safety tips and other information on how to prepare for emergencies and evacuations visit fire.lacounty.gov.
WEST HILLS (CNS) - Containment of a brush fire that erupted in the West Hills area and consumed 1,052 acres in Los Angeles and Ventura counties increased from 50% to 80% Saturday, with the spread of the flames halted.
The Kenneth Fire was reported around 3:30 p.m. Thursday in an area north of the Ventura (101) Freeway near Valley Circle Boulevard. Initially reported at 20 acres, it quickly expanded to 50 acres, and within 90 minutes it exploded to 791 acres, pushed by continuing Santa Ana winds.
A mandatory evacuation order was issued for the people between Vanowen Street and Burbank Boulevard, from County Lane Road east to Valley Circle Boulevard, but shortly before 5:30 p.m., that mandatory order was reduced to an evacuation warning as the fire burned its way primarily into Ventura County.
All evacuation orders and warnings were lifted as of 8 p.m. Thursday and deputies were checking the ID's of people moving through the area to be sure they were residents.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, officers responded at 4:30 p.m. Thursday to the 21700 block of Ybarra Road in Woodland Hills -- several miles from the start of the Kenneth Fire -- where residents reported a person allegedly trying to start a fire. LAPD Assistant Chief Dominic Choi said residents detained the man until officers arrived.
LAPD investigators and deputies from the Ventura County Sheriff's Department interviewed the man and determined there was "not enough probable cause" to arrest him as a possible arson suspect, Choi said. The man was, however, arrested on suspicion of a felony probation violation.
His name was not released.
No structures were damaged by the Kenneth Fire