It was initially reported as an arrest made on the suspicion of arson, with Sean Dinse of the LAPD’s Topanga Division telling news station KTLA on Thursday night that the authorities believed someone had purposefully set the Kenneth Fire.

The Kenneth fire burns in the Upper Las Virgenes Open Space Preserve on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Hills, L.A. Credit - Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times— A man was arrested on suspicion of arson on Thursday afternoon in the Woodland Hills near the Kenneth Fire,

The Los Angeles Police Department has detained a suspect in the blaze, which ignited in the west hills and burned nearly 1,000 acres in a matter of hours.

All mandatory evacuation orders have been lifted in the Kenneth Fire which burned through 1,000 acres in the West Hills area amid several other wildfires in other parts of Los Angeles County.

Forward progress of the Kenneth fire in the West Hills area of Los Angeles and Ventura County was stopped overnight at 1,000 acres as fire crews achieved 35% containment, authorities said Friday morning, Jan. 10. All evacuation orders and warnings within Los Angeles were lifted by Thursday evening, officials said.

Residents of Los Angeles’ Woodland Hills neighborhood helped police stop and detain a man with a blowtorch on Thursday, January 9, suspecting him of arson as the Kenneth Fire burned nearby.This footage captured by Chris Sumner shows community members confronting a man with a blowtorch in Woodland Hills,