By City News Service
A brushfire set off by flames from a burning Volkswagen on the west Ventura (101) Freeway, has been fully contained by Los Angeles County firefighters, a county fire official said.
The fire was reported at about 2:52 p.m. on the north side of the freeway, between Las Virgenes and Lost Hills roads.
By 7:30 p.m., the blaze had spread up a hillside into grassy wildlands and was about 30 to 35 percent contained, but by about 9:45 p.m., firefighters had cleared a line of brush around 100 percent of the 175-acre charred area and the flames were out, county fire dispatch Supervisor Ed Pickett said.
Two prison inmate-firefighters were injured in the battle, one with heat exhaustion and the other suffered an ankle injury. No structures were damaged, Pickett said.
All five lanes of the westbound 101 freeway were blocked as firefighters and equipment battled the brushfire.
The CHP reopened one westbound lane and issued a SigAlert for the other lanes while firefighting was underway.
The freeway was opened to traffic at about 10:10 p.m., CHP officials said.
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