US authorities have imposed curfews in areas of Los Angeles in the state of California to protect properties that have been evacuated because of the wildfires ravaging the area.
The curfews apply to the evacuated areas affected by the Palisades fire and the Eaton fire and are to be in place from 6 pm on Friday night until 6 am on Saturday (0200 GMT to 1400 GMT Saturday), Sheriff Robert Luna announced at a press conference on Friday morning.
“You cannot be in these affected areas. If you are, you are subject to arrest,” Luna said.
He said the curfews allow police to take action against looters operating in parts of the city that have been evacuated.
“We are doing it to protect the structures, the houses, that people have left because we ordered them to leave,” he added.
At least 11 people have died in the major wildfires that have torn across the Greater Los Angeles area in recent days, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said on Friday, with the death toll rising by one.
The victims counted by the medical examiner all died on Wednesday and Thursday. Six of them were killed in the Eaton Fire near Pasadena, and five others in the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades district. There have been several major fires in the region since Tuesday, but these two are the most severe.
On Thursday, US President Joe Biden said that the blazes were the most devastating in the history of the western US state, adding that 360,000 people had been evacuated so far.
Cars and homes distroyed by the Palisades Fire, in Malibu Village. Jonathan Alcorn/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
A general view of remnants of a homes in a neighborhood in Malibu village, as wildfires rage across the area. Jonathan Alcorn/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa