A homeless man was tackled by brave onlookers who say they saw him using a “flamethrower” to start blazes close to where one of the latest wildfires ravaging Los Angeles broke out.
The unidentified suspect was seen riding around Woodland Hills on a bicycle on Thursday afternoon setting fire to several old Christmas trees and garbage cans at the same time as the Kenneth Fire started, locals said.
Renata Grinshpun told KTLA she was in her backyard when she heard a car screech to a stop and a man yelling, “Neighbors, he’s trying to start a fire! Call 911!’”
She saw the suspect holding a large “propane tank or a flamethrower” — which others described as a blowtorch — as he tried to torch debris in the street.
Neighbors jumped into action and cornered the man as he tried to ride off, as caught in part in a video — with one man yelling at him: “Put it down!”
“We really banded together as a group,” Grinshpun told KTLA. “A few gentlemen surrounded him and got him on his knees. They got some zip ties, a rope and we were able to do a citizens’ arrest.”
One witness told Fox 11 that the suspect was “very focused on moving forward” with what the described as being more like a blowtorch.
“He was like, ‘I can’t stop. I can’t stop. I’m not putting this down. I’m doing this,’” the witness said.
“And we’re like, ‘We can’t be doing that right now.’”
Soon after the suspect was taken into custody, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed it was investigating the Kenneth Fire as likely arson.
“At this time, that’s what we believe. It’s being investigated as a crime,” LAPD Senior Lead Officer Sean Dinse initially told KTLA.
The major crimes squad was brought in because he was “a possible arson suspect,” LAPD Assistant Chief Dominic Choi told reporters in an update later Friday.
However, the homeless man had so-far only been arrested on a felony parole violation because “there was not enough probable cause to arrest this person on arson or suspicion on arson,” Choi said.
“This investigation is ongoing, however,” he stressed, thanking the citizens who tackled him and called it in.
It was not immediately clear what felony the suspect, who has still yet to be publicly identified, was on parole for.
The Kenneth Fire sparked just after 2:30 p.m. and has since exploded to 960 acres and continues to rip through Ventura County with 0% containment as of Friday morning.
The Los Angeles Fire Department initially issued mandatory evacuation orders for the area known as Hidden Hills, but downgraded that to warnings, Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley said in an update Thursday night.
At least 20 people were arrested Wednesday and Thursday morning for looting homes damaged or destroyed by the catastrophic wildfires ripping through the City of Angels, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Five separate fires sparked Tuesday morning, and days later have ravaged nearly 30,000 acres (47 square miles) in Los Angeles County, causing mass destruction and evacuations.
Some 130,000 Californians have been under evacuation orders from the multiple major fires, which include the Palisades Fire west of Los Angeles, the Eaton Fire north of Pasadena and the Sunset Fire in the Hollywood Hills.
The largest blaze, the Palisades Fire, has burned nearly 20,000 acres alongside the coast and destroyed more than 5,000 homes and structures in its path.
The out-of-control Eaton Fire has now destroyed or damaged between 4,000 and 5,000 homes as the growing blaze exploded to 13,690 acres on Thursday, officials said.
The cause of the five fires, three of which were completely un-contained, remain unknown and are under investigation.
At least 10 people are dead, with the death toll expected to climb.
