A large fire in the Calabasas area of Southern California was sparked by an arsonist who is in custody, the Los Angeles Police Department told NewsNation on Thursday night.
The Kenneth Fire began on Thursday at around 3:16 p.m. in West Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles before it spread to nearby Ventura County. According to Cal Fire, the conflagration had burned at least 960 acres.
Less than four hours after the blaze began, police said a suspect had been taken into custody.
“What we know right now is that incident occurred, started here,” LAPD Senior Lead Officer Charles Dinse told NewsNation’s Brian Entin. “And about 20 minutes, 30 minutes later, a suspect was detained over in Woodland Hills area by citizens.”
“So someone purposely set the Kenneth Fire?” Entin asked.
“At this time, that’s what we believe this, yes,” Dinse replied.
“Do You know how or why they did that?” the reporter followed up.
“That, I don’t know,” the officer answered before saying there is a criminal investigation into the matter.
The Los Angeles area has been beset by several fires since the beginning of the week amid drought conditions and high winds. The Pacific Palisades have been especially hard hit after a brush fire turned into an inferno that has damaged or destroyed 9,000 structures so far.
This is a developing story.
Watch above via NewsNation.