Just heard from my sister in Thousand Oaks. She stayed homme without power for the last three days, and they turned everything back on about two hours ago. But during our phone call she said the Kenneth fire is spreading and new evacuations are being called.
@EddyTeddyFreddy she, too, is skeptical that the fire was was started by an arsonist.
Not being reported by any credible news source with people actually on the ground interacting with fire and law enforcement.
Unmitigated bullshit.
Stranger
I too am highly skeptical and want to see confirmation from other sources whose reliability I can rely on. So far it’s only NewsNation, which is saying:
The Los Angeles Police Department has confirmed to NewsNation that the Kenneth Fire is now being investigated as an arson case, and one person is in custody.
I also found this on X, which likewise isn’t what I’d consider reliable:
#BREAKING Sources tell
@FOXLA 's
@GigiGraciettethat the #KennethFire is being investigated as arson. A suspect has been detained.
ETA: Now there’s this report from KESQ/News Channel 3:
The Kenneth Fire in Calabasas is being investigated as a possible arson incident with a person being detained, the Los Angeles Police Department. [sic]
LAPD officials said at around 4:30 p.m., they received a call regarding a possible arson suspect.
“A man called in stating a suspect was ‘attempting to light a fire’ in the area of the Kenneth Fire. The suspect is in custody and was transported to Topanga station. We are continuing our investigation and we CANNOT confirm any connection to any fire,” reads an LAPD statement.
That’s a more cautious statement than what I’ve encountered earlier, and it may well be a nothingburger, someone seeing something and misinterpreting it. I guess we’ll find out by tomorrow morning.
Yeah, I saw the same thing. That’s the fire I am closest to. Glad they caught the fucker who started it. I hope they throw the book at him.
Eta: since apparently this is in doubt, another source:
Anecdotal, but we got news of the Kenneth Fire starting when the wind had died down for a while. We were all pretty surprised to hear that a new fire had started.
Well, I’m glad to find out – okay, not “glad” since arson anytime but especially now and here is especially vile; but it’s satisfying on some level that I wasn’t just swallowing garbage reporting. I’d still like to see further confirmation of this.
ETA: I don’t think the New York Post and Daily Mail qualify.
I wonder how many other pyromaniacs set fires? Police made one arrest. He was trying to start a new fire.
This fire seems too large to come from only one ignition point.
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/arson-suspect-arrested-in-woodland-hills-near-kenneth-fire/
Yeah, I heard that, and that fire is under control.
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/arson-suspect-arrested-in-woodland-hills-near-kenneth-fire/
A possible arson suspect was arrested Thursday night near the Kenneth Fire area as fire crews continue battling flames burning near homes in Calabasas and West Hills.
At around 4:30 p.m., Los Angeles police responded to reports of a man attempting to light a fire in the 21700 block of Ybarra Road in Woodland Hills.
It was obvious from the number and pattern of fires that a firebug was doing some of them.
I’ll concur with @DrDeth . The Old Road is partly frontage road along I-5, and then you continue north on the Old Ridge Route. None of these are near hwy 126. These are historic roads before I-5 was built over the Tejon Pass.
My brother lives in South Pasadena and thankfully they are safe (@FloatyGimpy you’ve met him and his family), but they know many people who have lost their homes and many more who evacuated. His kids’ school has been closed and the air quality is really bad. He said the fire got to within 5 miles of his house, which sounds like a far distance but in reality those miles can be swallowed up quickly by a raging fire coupled with strong winds.
This has been so disastrous for the people there.
President Joe Biden on Thursday announced the federal government would cover 100% of costs for the initial disaster response to the Los Angeles wildfires.
Meeting with federal officials at the White House, Biden said the funds would go toward debris removal, temporary shelters, salaries for first responders and more for 180 days.
Biden said he emphasized to California officials they should “spare no expense to do what they need to do.”
I’ve been suspicious about an arsonist for a day or so now, with that many fires starting in such a short time, separated enough that they’re probably not contributing to each other. Just a gut reaction, I admit.
NBC showed a mother in an LA burn zone confronting Governor Newsom about firefighting efforts. She was distressed because the fire hydrant on her street was empty. I’ve thought that hydrants must be only a small part of firefighting. They’re most visible to people on the street but I’m glad firefighters have other options too.
It’s heartbreaking to watch in the news. I’m glad your brother and his family are safe. I was actually thinking about you folks just a few days ago. I went for a hike up a mountain and could easily see all the way to the States and wondered how you guys were doing.
To be clear, this 180 day period is what is set under the Stafford Act for a major disaster declaration, specifically for reimbursement of public expenditure for immediate protective measures and debris removal. This is NOT like the Baltimore bridge where there was a “100%” promise for the whole rebuilding that’s subject to congressional action.
By law past the 6 month mark the federal share drops to 90% or 75% depending on circumstances, subject to waivers and extensions.
( And this is entirely unrelated to property losses. I can only imagine that any attempt to significantly cover uninsured losses here with federal money could crush the FEMA Disasters Fund for several fiscal years absent a severalfold increase in the funding - as it is it has run out before the end of fiscal year and needed supplemental appropriations twice in a row already.)
JR, I’m glad you made this clear - it makes a lot more sense; I really appreciate how you wrote it.
Southern California has received a tiny fraction of the typical precipitation since the beginning of this ‘water year’ in October—on average only 0.15 inches—where it normally sees rain from November though February or March. The last two years (2023 and 2024) have has normal precipitation stimulating hillside scrub growth (especially in previous burn areas) which is now dried out, and the ground is so parched that it wouldn’t absorb small amounts of precipitation anyway, so the vegetation is matchstick dry and ready to burn at the slightest provocation. Add to that near record Santa Ana winds (winds blowing over the San Gabriel and and Santa Susana Mountains) at speeds in some places exceeding 80 mph and Southern California Edison’s usual ineptitude in closing the barn door after horses have escaped while shutting down power to areas not impacted by wind and fire officials have been concerned for months about the potential for fast-moving fires, and have warned since Jan 1 that the LA Basin would likely see ‘exceptional fire activity’.
I don’t know that any cause has been determined for the Palisades Fire and while it appears that the Kenneth Fire was suspected arson (although I’ll caution against that assumption until fire officials investigate because there have been numerous instances of ‘it must have been arson’ that turned out to be poorly protected utility lines) but given where and when the Eaton Fire started it was almost certainly due to failure of the power lines going up to the Mount Wilson Observatory. We have real problems with firebugs and stupid people with their ‘gender reveal parties’ setting the hills on fire, but the area is just also prone to and primed for mass conflagration, and wind conditions that drive fires to expand at rates measured in tens of feet per minute…
Water supply from fire hydrants are the primary means of firefighting in urban and suburban areas but under mass fire conditions the reserve water pressure can become depleted. Tanker trucks cannot possibly carry enough water to suppress more than a couple of house fires, and fire suppression foam is mostly used on vehicle fires and to prevent fires from spreading into vegetated areas, not to suppress houses on fire.
All of these fucking conspiracy theories I’m seeing about how “Governor NewScum” is shutting off water supplies in a conspiracy to force houses to burn so he can get federal money (even being repeated, if with some skepticism, by some legitimate news sources; WTF?) are irresponsible and disgusting fear mongering; regardless of what you think of Newsom, he doesn’t control water districts nor is he personally shutting off water mains. How this nonsense has become politicized in the midst of an actual emergency I don’t know but it is asinine and counterproductive.
Stranger
Wait, he isn’t seizing the land to dig lithium mines?
Indeed.
Googling indicates that the pumping rate of a typical fire engine is ~1000 gallons per minute, and the capacity of a large tanker fire truck is 1500 gallons. An acceptable flow rate from a residential fire hydrant is 1000 gpm - 500 is considered marginal.
So a full truck can at best supply water for a couple of minutes. Without hydrants fed by a good water supply, serious fire fighting isn’t possible.
And these winds are also how multiple fires that seem to be separate can all ignite from a single source. Winds like that can blow embers a few miles.
Yup. In the 2021 fire I mentioned above we had individual trees set on fire by flying embers as far as several kilometers away from the main fire. Fortunately they didn’t start secondary blazes.
Just saw an interview on NewsNation of a woman who was there when the alleged arsonist was caught by the neighbors. She said her mom heard the commotion and ran out in her bathrobe to help stop him. The woman said she saw him with what looked like a blowtorch.
I’m seeing the story in several legitimate news sources now.
This still has to be confirmed by fire investigators but the story is looking somewhat more solid.
ETA: Just saw this posted on FB: “I saw video this morning of the first guy who spotted the bastard with the propane tank screaming at him and alerting his neighbors. they all surrounded him until the cops came.”