A suspected arsonist was arrested in the Italian night in California, where devastating fires have left at least 10 dead and 180,000 evacuated for days. The episode occurred in the area north of Los Angeles, near where the Kenneth fire is raging.

Around 4:30 p.m. local time (1:30 a.m. AEDT), police responded to multiple reports of a man attempting to start a fire on Ybarra Road in Woodland Hills with a homemade flamethrower . Residents who spotted the suspected arsonist held him down until officers arrived, according to local media.

“We were sitting in the yard and all of a sudden we heard a car stop and a guy came running out and said, ‘ Stop! Drop what you’re holding! Neighbors, he’s trying to start a fire! Call (911!) ,’” resident Renata Grinshpun, who witnessed the incident, told local station KtLa. She said the commotion woke up neighbors, who came out of their homes and stopped the man, who had what appeared to be a large “propane tank or flamethrower.”

The preliminary toll of the fires ravaging the Los Angeles area now includes at least 10,000 homes, buildings and other structures , according to law enforcement officials. The fire covers an area of about 117 square kilometers, about the size of San Francisco . All schools in the Los Angeles school district, the nation's second-largest, will remain closed today because of thick smoke hanging over the city and ash raining down in some parts.

(Unioneonline/r.sp.)

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