Kenneth fire quickly grows to 960 acres, threatening homes near Calabasas

Richard Winton, Clara Harter and Jasmine Mendez, Los Angeles Times on Jan 9, 2025

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LOS ANGELES — A fire has broken out at the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties and is spreading rapidly, threatening numerous hillside homes in the Calabasas and Hidden Hills areas.

The Kenneth fire ignited adjacent to a trailhead near Victory Boulevard around 2:30 p.m. Pacific time.

Fanned by strong Santa Ana winds, the fire had consumed 960 acres of brush by 5:30 p.m. and was burning south, officials said. It was spreading through open space and threatening homes in the Malibu Canyon area north of the 101 Freeway near Calabasas.

Firefighters were on scene, and water drops were being made by air.

“The challenging terrain and persistent winds complicate suppression activities, necessitating heightened vigilance from residents and adherence to directives from local authorities,” said incident commanders.

Shortly before 6 p.m., Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that 900 additional firefighters were being deployed to fight the blaze. He also praised the pace at which helicopters were already working to douse the flames with water.

“First responders are rapidly responding to the Kenneth Fire, transporting water from Pepperdine University’s Recycled Water Irrigation Reservoir via helicopter to firefighters on the ground in Calabasas,” he wrote in a post on X. “Multiple water refills in just a matter of minutes.”

A mandatory evacuation for areas around Vanowen Street south to Burbank Boulevard and County Lane Road east to Valley Circle Boulevard was downgraded at 5:12 p.m to an evacuation warning.

Evacuation warnings were canceled for the area between Valley Circle and Woodlake Avenue and in the Oak Park area near Kanan Road and Agoura Road, east of Kanan Road to Deer Hill.

In a related incident, an evacuation warning for the Kenneth fire mistakenly went out to residents across Los Angeles.

Just before 4 p.m., residents from Long Beach to Echo Park and beyond mistakenly received the evacuation warning alert on their phones. A corrected alert was sent around 4:19 p.m.

“Disregard last evacuation warning,” the alert read. “It was for the Kenneth Fire only.”

Christina Lazarte, a 22-year-old from Van Nuys, was making her way to Victory Trailhead alongside her father, Julio — hoping to capture the scenic view with their new camera. She arrived around 2:50 p.m. and began to smell smoke and notice the flames.

“We saw the fire barely starting. It wasn’t much of a spread, but since it was windy, it started to spread more,” Lazarte said. “The smell was really horrible."

She said police officials and firefighters were soon at the scene — evacuating people from the area.

“There were still hikers out there before the fire even started, as I heard one of the people say as we were being kicked out,” she said. “There was a lot of smoke spreading.”

The new fire has emerged as firefighters are continuing to battle several other blazes around the region, including the nearly 20,000-acre Palisades fire and the Eaton fire in Altadena, which has charred around 13,700 acres.