Illegal campfire caused 'Skirball' blaze that torched homes in Bel-Air, officials say

An illegal cooking fire at an encampment near a Los Angeles freeway sparked a fast-moving wildfire last week that destroyed homes in the tony Bel-Air neighborhood and closed down a major freeway, authorities said Tuesday.

The Los Angeles Fire Department said that the cooking fire in a brush area near Sepulveda Boulevard where it passes underneath the 405 Freeway was the cause of the so-called Skirball Fire, which broke out at around 5 a.m. Wednesday and destroyed six homes.

There have been no arrests, the Fire Department said. The fire was at a homeless encampment, but the Fire Department had no previous knowledge of an encampment there, LAFD public information director Peter Sanders said.

The Skirball Fire forced the closure of the freeway, a major north-south artery in Los Angeles, and prompted worries that it could jump the freeway and threaten the Getty Museum and its priceless art collection.

The fire, which burned more than 400 acres, was 85 percent contained on Tuesday, the Fire Department said.

The fire broke out as firefighters across Southern California battles several other large wildfires, the largest of which, the Thomas fire in Ventura County, was 20 percent contained as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known asCal Fire.

One death has been blamed in all of the recent fires. A 70-year-old woman died in a car crash "during active fire evacuation" from the Thomas Fire, the Ventura County medical examiner said. The body of Virginia Pesola, of Santa Paula, was found on Wednesday.

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The Thomas fire has destroyed nearly 800 homes or other structures since it broke out on Dec. 4, and still threatens 18,000 other structures, according to Cal Fire. The fire has burned more than 234,000 acres — more than 365 square miles — and thousands of people were ordered to leave their homes.

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Several other large fires that were burning in Southern California have been largely contained. The Lilac fire in San Diego, which killed horses and destroyed 151 homes or other structures since it broke out on Thursday, burned 4,100 acres and was 92 percent contained, according to Cal Fire.

The Creek Fire in Los Angeles County near the community of Sylmar was 98 percent contained, and the Rye Fire near Santa Clarita north of Los Angeles was 96 percent contained as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the U.S. Forest Service and Cal Fire.

In the town of Summerland in Santa Barbara County, up the coast from Ventura, residents are under voluntary evacuation orders and some are staying, an employee at a local bar and restaurant said.

“It’s the worst I’ve ever seen it, and I just feel so bad because there’s so many displaced people,” Andrea Lionello, who works at The Nugget in Summerland, which is staying open, told NBC News on Tuesday.

She and her family are camping out at their in-laws. "But we're all in the same boat," Lionello said. "We just have to still keep plugging through and pushing through."

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