Los Angeles Fire Started in Homeless Encampment, Officials Say

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LOS ANGELES — The fire that burned through one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the country last week started as a cooking fire at a homeless encampment, according to an investigation by the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Homeless people had been living in the neighborhood — Bel-Air, in northwest Los Angeles — making their encampment near an underpass of the 405 freeway along Sepulveda Boulevard for several years, said Peter Sanders, a spokesman for the fire department. The blaze, known as the Skirball Fire, was one of several wildfires that have ravaged Southern California in recent days, spread by high winds and dry conditions.

Arson investigators went to the encampment a few hours after the blaze began in Bel-Air just before 5 a.m. last Wednesday. Although they found evidence that there had been people cooking and sleeping in the area, they found no one at the site. There are no suspects and it is unlikely one would be named, Mr. Sanders said.

“There was nobody when they got there and there is no video evidence or witnesses we know of,” Mr. Sanders said. “So, short of someone coming forward and confessing or another individual who may have been at the camp saying who did this, we will not have a suspect.”

The fire destroyed six homes in the neighborhood and damaged about a dozen more as it burned roughly 400 acres, shutting down the busy 405 during the morning rush hour. Officials said the fire was about 85 percent contained by Tuesday afternoon.

Much of the evidence at the homeless encampment was burned in the fire, but investigators determined it was not arson because of what had been left there and where the flames had ignited. The ditch where officials said the encampment was appeared blackened and empty on Tuesday.

Like other cities throughout California, the homeless population in Los Angeles has grown significantly in recent years. Today, elaborate encampments with tents, mattresses and camping stoves can be seen tucked into freeway underpasses and on corners all over the city. Though cooking fires in the open are illegal, orange flames can frequently be seen from the encampments after dark.

Officials estimate that there are about 58,000 homeless people in Los Angeles County, after a count that was done in May, a 23 percent increase from the number last year. The homeless population in West Los Angeles, which includes Bel-Air, reached about 5,500 this year, roughly 900 more people than in 2016.

An average of 103 wildfires a year in California are started by illegal open fires, which include warming fires, cooking fires and campfires, according to Cal Fire. Officials do not track how often homeless encampment fires turn into destructive wildfires, but said it was not uncommon. About 90 percent of wildfires nationally are started by humans, according to the National Park Service.