NEWBURY PARK : 2 Boys, Firecrackers Ignite Brush Blaze

Two boys were responsible for igniting a blaze that scorched a quarter of an acre of brush in Newbury Park on Friday, a Ventura County fire official said.

Arson investigator Peter Cronk said the boys, ages 10 and 11, were playing with firecrackers in a field near Barranca Road when they accidentally set dry grass on fire. They were caught soon after the fire was reported at 2:12 p.m.

Cronk said the youths will probably be sent to the county’s juvenile fire-starters program and be billed for the cost of fighting the fire. He did not have the cost estimate on Friday.

In other parts of the county, winds gusting up to 40 m.p.h. kicked up dirt and debris in the Los Padres National Forest, triggering a series of reports of fires in Ojai and in the remote community of Mt. Pinos, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman said. By nightfall, none of those reports could be confirmed, the spokesman said.

Fire officials are still trying to determine who started a wildfire that charred 35 acres in Thousand Oaks on Thursday.

Authorities are blaming the blaze on an arsonist who they say set the fire from atop a ridge between Skyline Drive and Willow Lane. The fire burned heavy brush in the rugged hills, and winds gusting up to 15 m.p.h. drove flames to within 30 yards of one home.

Two hand crews and five fire engines spent Friday dousing hot spots on the hillsides, dispatcher Cece Grives said. They were finished by early evening.