Portugal Colonial - Shotgun watch: LA fire evacuees guard against looters

After surviving the terror of a chaotic wind-driven fire, Norman was at his Altadena house when he saw two suspicious men in the hours before dawn on Thursday.

"They were testing doors and looking in windows" of homes that had been evacuated, he told AFP.

Norman, a teacher, said a police officer friend told him that looters had been arrested a few blocks away just hours earlier.

So he decided to take matters into his own hands.

"I did the classic American thing: I went and got my shotgun and I sat out there, and put a light on so they knew people were there," he said.

For Norman, the evening was reminiscent of the 1992 riots in Los Angeles, when the city's streets erupted after Rodney King, a Black man, was beaten to death by white police officers.

He said that night, his father had sat with a gun at the front door -- his young son at his side -- to protect the family "while streets were burning and people were shooting everywhere."

He said he never thought he would see something similar in sleepy Altadena, a place he moved eight years ago.

The city, home to around 40,000 people, has been ravaged by one of the multiple wildfires that have torn through the area, razing over 9,000 buildings and killing five people.

The destruction was cruelly random: in some places an entire street has vanished; in others a few houses remain, while blocks away just one property was damaged.

But for those who count themselves lucky enough to have come through the tragedy, the thought of outsiders preying on their misery is almost too much to bear.

"I didn't save that damn house to have some idiot come and steal from me," said Norman. "That's not happening."

"There's the thievery, but it's made worse by the cowardice."

Norman, who usually doesn't even lock his car, said he will be back on his porch after sunset, and will make a few rounds of nearby streets to keep an eye out on empty houses.

- Patrols -

Around 20 people have been arrested in disaster zones since the first fires broke out on Tuesday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.

He has pledged to beef up patrols and said his officers -- who are soon to be backed up by California National Guard soldiers -- will be proactively stopping anyone they see in an evacuation area.

"When we have an evacuation order by law, if you remain in that area, you are guilty of a misdemeanor. If you commit certain crimes, it could jump up to a felony," he said.

"If you are in one of these areas and you do not belong there, you are going to be subject to arrest."

For Chris, an Altadena resident who did not want to give his full name, even the promise of more manpower was not enough.

When he returned home on Thursday morning -- a house he has just spent a year renovating -- the padlock on his gate had been forced.

"It's clear evidence that somebody was here in the middle of the night," he said.

No one had managed to get in, but Chris spent much of Thursday hammering plywood over his windows and doors to give his property greater protection.

"We're boarding up, kind of getting things squared away, having neighborhood watches all because some morons are out there, preying on people," he said.

"It sucks. I'd rather be helping all my neighbors."

X.M.Francisco--PC