Los Angeles neighbours described how they chased down a suspected arsonist and restrained him with cable ties in a dramatic citizens’ arrest while the city burned and homes were devoured by the worst fires in living memory.
Peter Kay, 40, said he “would have done anything necessary” to prevent more fires spreading across Woodland Hills in Los Angeles and destroying their homes.
He added that he was the first to spot the stranger in the leafy neighbourhood holding a blowtorch rummaging near his bins on Thursday afternoon.
Mr Kay described how he sped after the suspect in his white Mercedes until he found him attempting to start a fire near another property and shouted to neighbours to help. They poured out of their homes and the group all pitched in to push the man to the floor and restrain him with plastic zip ties while they called 911 and waited for police.
The extraordinary scene unfolded as several devastating blazes had been tearing through nearby areas for days, razing some 10,000 buildings to the ground and killing 10 people.
Police are investigating if the Kenneth fire was started deliberately
With the cause of the original fires still unknown, Los Angeles neighbourhoods have become gripped with anxiety amid fears the infernos are being started by arsonists.
Tens of thousands of people are already under evacuation orders, while scores of families have their bags packed with their most sentimental possessions in case they are ordered to leave their homes.
A curfew had on Friday night been imposed in areas surrounding the Palisades and Eaton fires after nearly two-dozen looters were arrested for raiding abandoned buildings.
Mr Kay, a father of three, said he first saw the man rummaging near the garden waste bins armed with what he described as a “blowtorch”.
He said: “The first thing that came to my mind is, I need to grab that from him, because this guy may not be mentally all there, and he might do something unintentionally.”
The man began pedalling away on his bike, prompting Mr Kay to grab his keys and chase after him.
Minutes later, neighbour Ralph Cavallaro, 56, also noticed the man had stopped outside his home holding something while looking in a wheelie bin containing an old Christmas tree. “He sees me coming out of my house, gets back on the bike with the yellow blowtorch in his hand and was riding away, looking at me in the face,” he said.
Mr Kay then sped round the corner, asking his neighbour what way the man had gone.
Putting his foot down, Mr Kay managed to catch up with the suspect, pulling up in front of him and blocking his path of escape.
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“He was standing next to trash cans filled with brush and leaves and he started running … I started grabbing him but I didn’t want him to burn my face so I kept a distance and shouted at him to ‘put that down’, and he wasn’t willing to,” he said.
Realising he needed help, Mr Kay began shouting, saying someone was trying to set the neighbourhood on fire.
People began piling out of their homes, including Chris Sumner, 48, who found Mr Kay and the suspect in a standoff in his front garden.
“I heard Peter yelling, and I heard there was a gentleman with the blowtorch right there,” he said.
While the suspect was distracted by Mr Sumner, Mr Kay managed to grab the suspect’s right arm. Then, another neighbour tripped the suspect over. Mr Sumner grabbed some cable ties from the garage to apprehend him until the police arrived.
Five minutes later, eight police cars pulled up, including arson detectives, who took the suspect away to interview him.
Dominic Choi, LAPD divisional chief, said the suspect would not face arson charges because there was “not enough probable cause”. The man was arrested on a felony probation violation.