Homeless camp sparked Bel-Air fire, officials say
LOS ANGELES — Authorities said Tuesday that a wildfire that destroyed six homes and damaged a dozen more last week in the exclusive Bel-Air section of Los Angeles was sparked by an illegal cooking fire in a homeless encampment.
City fire spokesman Erik Scott said investigators found the campsite in some brush near Sepulveda Boulevard where it passes under Interstate 405.
No one was in the camp, and no arrests had been made.
Scott said fire officials didn’t know about the camp but that beginning next fire season they plan to start looking for such encampments and will notify police.
The fire near the Getty museum was one of several burning simultaneously in the LA area last week that forced thousands to evacuate.
The causes of the other fires remain under investigation.
Early Tuesday, the fifth largest wildfire in the state’s history expanded, ripping through dry brush atop a coastal ridge while crews struggled to keep flames from roaring down into neighborhoods amid fears of renewed winds.
Firefighters protected foothill homes northwest of Los Angeles, making progress in residential areas while much of the fire’s growth occurred to the north in unoccupied forest land, Santa Barbara County Fire Department spokesman Mike Eliason said Tuesday.
Tens of thousands of people remain evacuated, including many from the seaside enclaves of Montecito, Summerland and Carpinteria and the inland agricultural town of Fillmore.
Residents near a Carpinteria avocado orchard said the trees could end up saving their homes.
“You have a thick layer of leaves underneath the bottom and they are watered regularly, so it’s like a sponge,” Jeff Dreyer, who lives nearby, told KEYT-TV. “So the fire gets to the sponge full of water and it slows it down. It takes a long time for it to burn.”
Poor air quality kept dozens of schools closed. As ash rained down and smoke blew through streets, regulators urged people to remain inside if possible and avoid strenuous activity.
Officials handed out masks to those who stayed behind in Montecito, an exclusive community 75 miles from Los Angeles that’s home to stars such as Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bridges and Drew Barrymore. Actor Rob Lowe was among residents who evacuated over the weekend.
The blaze — known as the Thomas fire — has destroyed more than 680 homes, officials said. It was just partially contained after burning more than 360 square miles of dry brush and timber. The fire has been burning for more than a week.
To the north, San Francisco Bay Area firefighters quickly contained blazes Tuesday that destroyed at least two homes in hills east of Oakland — the site of a 1991 firestorm that killed 25 people.