Los Angeles police captain, Mike Lorenz, has disclosed that at least 20 people have been arrested for looting evacuated homes in Los Angeles, United States, including two people who posed as firefighters.
“Looting is an issue, the number of arrests is continuously growing. We even made arrests of two individuals that were actually posing as firefighters coming in and out of houses,” he said.
The arrests came as the death toll from California’s devastating wildfires rose to 16.
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Among the casualties was a British former child star, Rory Callum Sykes, who appeared on the TV programme ‘Kiddie Kapers’ in the 1990s.
Sykes died of carbon monoxide poisoning at his family’s estate in Malibu on Wednesday, his mother said.
Shelley Sykes said she attempted to save her 32-year-old son, who was born with cerebral palsy, by putting out the flames on his cottage, before realising their water had been turned off.
She rushed off to seek help from the local fire department but returned to find the cottage had been destroyed.
“He said, ‘Mom leave me’ and no mom can leave their kid. And I’ve got a broken arm, I couldn’t lift him, I couldn’t move him,” Ms Sykes narrated.
The two largest wildfires blazing in Los Angeles, the Eaton and Palisades fires, had not been contained in the 24 hours leading to Sunday morning.
On Sunday morning, the Palisades fire, which has burned over 23,000 acres, was still 11 per cent contained which was the same as Saturday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).