California Residents Take Matters Into Their Own Hands, Take Down Man With A Blowtorch Allegedly Trying To Start Fires

Throw him under the jail. The videos coming out of California the past few days are downright apocalyptic, with entire neighborhoods leveled and thousands of houses destroyed by wildfires in the Los Angeles area. The largest of these fires, the Pacific Palisades fires, has burned nearly 20,000 acres and destroyed 5,000 structures, including homes belonging to celebrities like Paris Hilton, actor James Woods, Mel Gibson and many others. As of right now the fire is only 6% contained, with the response being hampered by high winds and extremely dry conditions, as well as the extreme demand for water causing hydrants to run dry. Along with the Palisades fire, the Eaton fire in the Pasadena area has burned over 13,000 acres and destroyed 4,000 structures, and over 180,000 people have been evacuated across the area as everybody comes together to try to make progress against these devastating wildfires. Well, almost everybody... The cause of most of the fires is unknown at this point, although firefighters have said they believe that the Palisades fire started as a small fire in a backyard and spread rapidly from there. But yesterday afternoon, a new fire popped up just north of the Palisades fire, near West Hills and Calabasas. The Kenneth fire, as it's called, has burned over 1,000 acres, and is around 35% contained at the moment. And shortly after the blaze started, citizens in the area noticed a man walking around with a blowtorch trying to set fires and quickly jumped into action. Video released by FOX LA shows a man confronting the guy who's still holding the yellow propane blowtorch. And more of his fellow citizens quickly jump in to detain him, even taking him to the ground with a leg hook after he continues to struggle to get away. https://twitter.com/MattSeedorff/status/1877642038746698010 According to KTLA, one of the residents said they saw the man trying to light something on fire behind a vehicle. The community then came together and used zip ties and rope to hold the man until police arrived. The LAPD later confirmed that the nearby Kenneth fire is suspected to be arson. https://twitter.com/BrianEntin/status/1877548273323348194 According to the NY Post, the man is believed to be homeless, though his identity hasn't been released and no charges have been filed at this time. The LAPD also said they cannot confirm a connection between the suspect and any of the wildfires just yet, although I'm sure that's one of the main focuses of their investigation right now. https://twitter.com/LAPDPIO/status/1877562916032872726 There's obviously been a lot of speculation about the causes for these wildfires, and plenty of finger-pointing at officials, from California Governor Gavin Newsom all the way down to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and fire chief Kristen Crowley. Of course the main priority right now is putting out these devastating fires and beginning the long process of rebuilding what's been lost. But hopefully once it's all said and done, everybody comes together to find out not only what started the fires, but what caused them to spread so quickly and why they weren't able to be contained. And hopefully, anybody who is found to have set the fires intentionally is held fully accountable, because the devastation they've caused is unimaginable.