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Smoke from today's brush fire in Santa Clarita (Photo by Purple Blossom via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)
This afternoon a brush fire that grew to about 40 acres tore through Santa Clarita, at times threatening around 50 homes homes in the Brookview Terrace area.
Now a 14-year-old boy has confessed to accidentally sparking the blaze when "he started the fire when he dropped a barbecue lighter as he was trying to light a pot pipe," reports cbs2. The youth was booked on arson charges.
A second teenage boy was detained, but released. He told investigators from the LA County Sheriff's Department that he had tried to help put the fire out but the pair had fled when it began to burn out of control.
Two others were arrested in the aftermath of today's blaze; in two unrelated incidents, both a 33-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy allegedly interfered with the firefighters. In both cases they "each stood dangerously close to the fire, refused to leave the area, prevented helicopters from dropping water and had to be rescued before they were arrested."
The fire has been fully contained as of this evening.
