SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The fire danger in Los Angeles remains high today after another day of dry conditions and Santa Ana winds. Fire crews have made good progress to tame the blazes that destroyed whole neighborhoods last week, displacing thousands of people. And even as the firefight continues, residents and local leaders are turning their attention to security and the potential for crime. NPR's Martin Kaste reports from Los Angeles.
(SOUNDBITE OF HELICOPTER BLADES WHIRRING)
MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE: Security is tight along this stretch of Sunset Boulevard, which is one of the borders of the mandatory evacuation zone below the Palisades fire. This leafy intersection is blocked by a National Guard armored troop carrier, and a resident who can see her house just across the street approaches the yellow tape to plead her case.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: And they're not doing any escorts for medicine or anything anymore?
UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: That's it.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: That's it. Maybe tomorrow?
KASTE: In the hills above, fire trucks are still moving around the Pacific Palisades looking for hot spots, but police are now out in force, too. Officers from across the city are posted at intersections here, some in unmarked cars. A couple of streets are blocked off completely, even to the media. The checkpoint cops say they're crime scenes, but they won't say why. Commander Christine Coles of the LA County Sheriff's Department says part of its mission in the Palisades is, quote, "looter suppression."
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CHRISTINE COLES: We have made seven arrests related to the Palisades fire involving looting, unauthorized entry into an emergency area, battery on a peace officer and additional charges for weapons and narcotics possessions.
KASTE: But it's not just police that are keeping watch. Further east, in the other big fire zone around Pasadena and Altadena, Diane McClain is lugging a wagon full of plastic gas cans up the hill for her brother. He never left the exclusion zone.
DIANE MCCLAIN: His house is still standing, but he also had a RV, so, you know, that's pretty much where he's getting his power.
KASTE: At the checkpoint, the police let her hand the gas cans over to her brother. The rule here is that as long as he doesn't cross out of the zone, they let him stay. Inside the zone, it turns out his house was saved by a neighbor, Dan Lievense, an LA fire captain. Lievense says when the fires got bad last week, he got permission to leave the one he was working on. He used a hose procured by his brother, also a firefighter, to connect to the hydrant by his own house and take a stand.
DAN LIEVENSE: We only had enough fire hose to get at four houses. If we had enough to go five houses, believe me, we would have saved the fifth house.
KASTE: Now, Lievense is sitting out on the lawn, keeping an eye on his house and the other three he saved. But he doesn't see his role here as that of a guard. He's not that worried about looting.
LIEVENSE: I don't know. What are they going to carry, a 65-inch TV? I don't think it's as bad as people say. I think it's just - people want to come and see death and destruction, I think, and they're going to get caught up as potentially being a looter because they're not allowed to be in here.
KASTE: He says it's that and the ongoing hazards that justify the continued security restrictions to these areas. Also, after a disaster like this, there are other kinds of crime to worry about.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HYDEE FELDSTEIN SOTO: Fraud, scam artists, trespass.
KASTE: That's LA City attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto on Monday. She was part of a wall of local state and federal law enforcement representatives warning that they plan to crack down on opportunists.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
FELDSTEIN SOTO: Let me add my voice to the chorus. My office will lean in to ensure that no individual gets away with illegal or predatory conduct.
KASTE: One focus is price gouging. It's illegal in California to raise certain prices more than 10% in an emergency, but huge rent hikes are being reported despite the law. There are also warnings out about fraudulent fundraising and other scams, such as the people who contacted Altadena resident Linda Zeng about her cat, missing in the fire.
LINDA ZENG: They said, we have your cat, and we found him. And then they said, can you pay for gas? And that's when I realized that it was a scam.
KASTE: Zeng says she's usually the one warning people about scams. But she says, when you're the one caught up in a disaster like this, you sometimes forget to take your own advice.
Martin Kaste, NPR News, Los Angeles. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
