A new wildfire erupted near West Hills and rapidly moved into Ventura County on Thursday afternoon, Jan. 9, but evacuation orders and warnings in both counties later were lifted.
On Thursday night, the Kenneth fire was being investigated as a possible arson, and a person of interest was detained, officials said.
The fire grew quickly to engulf 960 acres near Victory Boulevard west of Gilmore Street and was headed south towards Hidden Hills, fire officials said early Thursday evening.
An update on KCAL around 6:15 p.m. showed that firefighters were making progress on the blaze in an area between the Hidden Hills and Mountain View communities, though the winds were expected to pick up overnight.
“This new fire shows we absolutely are not out of this extreme weather event,” LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said, referring to this week’s historic windstorm at an evening news conference.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department later downgraded mandatory evacuation orders for the Kenneth fire to evacuation warnings. As of 5:30 p.m., the fire was fully within the jurisdiction of the Ventura County Fire Department.
• Also see: This map shows where the Kenneth fire is burning near West Hills
All evacuation warnings in Ventura County were lifted as of 7 p.m.
The LAFD previously called the blaze the Kennith fire.
Red flag warnings of critical fire danger will be in place for much of the L.A. area through 6 p.m. Friday. The most serious gusts of this week’s windstorm were recorded Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. But forecasters said the winds will again gain strength.
“While winds had diminished some last night, they are increasing and becoming more widespread today (Thursday) and will continue into Friday morning,” according to the National Weather Service.
“The strongest winds today into Friday morning will be across the mountains (including the Santa Susanas and Santa Monicas) and Santa Clarita Valley, where damaging wind gusts up to 65 mph can be expected, except isolated gusts to 75 mph in the San Gabriels, western Santa Monicas, and Santa Susana mountains,” the NWS said.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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