Five-Acre Blaze Called Suspicious

A brush fire of suspicious origin scorched about five acres in Simi Valley on Tuesday morning, authorities said.

The fire, which started just before 6 a.m., burned in a remote canyon south of the Brandeis-Bardin Institute, a Ventura County Fire Department spokesman said.

Because it is fire season, the department attacked the blaze with full brush-fire response using five engines, two hand crews, a water tender and a bulldozer, the spokesman said.

Because of the remoteness of the area, crews had to use Edison Road--a fire access road made of dirt that winds up the canyon. No structures were threatened in the blaze, officials said.

Fire investigators are still looking into what might have ignited the fire.