A homeless man was tackled by brave onlookers who say they saw him using a “flamethrower” to start blazes close to where one of the latest wildfires ravaging Los Angeles broke out.
The unidentified suspect was seen riding around Woodland Hills on a bicycle on Thursday afternoon setting fire to several old Christmas trees and garbage cans at the same time as the Kenneth Fire started, locals said.
Renata Grinshpun told KTLA she was in her backyard when she heard a car screech to a stop and a man yelling, “Neighbors, he’s trying to start a fire! Call 911!’”
She saw the suspect holding a large “propane tank or a flamethrower” — which others described as a blowtorch — as he tried to torch debris in the street.
Neighbors jumped into action and cornered the man as he tried to ride off, as caught in part in a video — with one man yelling at him: “Put it down!”
“We really banded together as a group,” Grinshpun told KTLA. “A few gentlemen surrounded him and got him on his knees. They got some zip ties, a rope and we were able to do a citizens’ arrest.”
One witness told Fox 11 that the suspect was “very focused on moving forward” with what the described as being more like a blowtorch.
“He was like, ‘I can’t stop. I can’t stop. I’m not putting this down. I’m doing this,’” the witness said.
“And we’re like, ‘We can’t be doing that right now.’”
