Small brush fire threatens homes in West Hills

WEST HILLS, Calif. (KABC) -- A brush fire that erupted in West Hills Thursday afternoon threatened several homes as crews raced to extinguish the flames.

The fire was reported in the 25000 block of West Kittridge Street and grew to about two acres by 4:30 p.m.

It mostly burned uphill in medium to heavy brush but firefighters managed to tame the flames rather quickly.

"I said, 'Oh my gosh, the fire is really close,'" said West Hills resident Lisa Corominas. "We took a look outside, there's a big plume of smoke and then I alerted my husband, the kids started packing up some things."

Initially, some residents were unaware a fire had broken out in the park near their homes.

"We saw the fire trucks going up and all the smoke in the area," said Chris Newton. "We were just down the street and she didn't even realize until all of a sudden, she looked out the window once I told her to and then saw that the fire was like right here."

With 10 mph winds and steep terrain, about 100 firefighters with the city and county were able to anchor the fire and deployed ground crews to stop progress before the uphill homes became damaged.

Water-dropping aircraft helped firefighters extinguish the fire in 79 minutes, LAFD said.

Southern California had a wet winter but conditions will change as temperatures start rising this summer.

"We're going to see things dry up out here, you know, July and August, and then when our winds pick up in the Santa Anas, so we're fortunate today," said LAFD Battalion Chief Thomas Gikas. "We had weather in our favor and we had a lot of resources quick."

No evacuation orders were issued and no injuries were reported.