John Jefferson
Defiant and armed Los Angeles homeowners in the scorched Altadena community have taken to the streets to defend the homes that remain standing — even if those streets have been blocked off by a police line amid evacuation orders and raging wildfires, residents say.
Authorities have arrested at least a dozen individuals in connection with looting and arson, and prosecutors in Los Angeles and neighboring Orange County have asked the governor to order stiffer penalties for looters.
Ignoring evacuation orders, Mike Leroy and Billy Theodorakopoulos told Fox News Digital they were protecting their neighborhood against looters.
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At first, they stayed behind to try and protect their homes with garden hoses, keeping their rooftops and yards as wet as they could and directly battling a garage fire that reached a car’s gas tank. Firefighters joined them briefly, helping contain the flames, but then moved on to other emergencies.
They decided to stay and ward off looters.
I’ve renamed it “Texadena,” since we’re all walking around with our guns.
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“We had one incident, early on,” Leroy said. “But nothing afterwards. We’ve been seeing a lot of patrol, especially the past few nights.”
He said they were taking a few hours of sleep between patrols and remaining on the lookout.
Theodorakopoulos’ wife, Maggie, said she has taken to calling Altadena by a new name amid the chaos.
“Now I’ve renamed it ‘Texadena,’ since we’re all walking around with our guns and stuff,” she joked.
Without power, the holdouts set up a makeshift camp with a solar-powered shower.
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The pair said they were hoping more of their neighbors would join them.
“We need the neighbors to come home so that we can take a break,” Theodorakopoulos said. “And No. 2, we need more vigilance… There’s only six of us in a three-block radius to cover all this, and there’s a lot more territory here.”
Earlier this week,The Wall Street Journal reported that some armed homeowners were interrogating strangers they found in the closed-off community.
The fires have killed at least 24 people in just over a week. Authorities say they expect to discover more fatalities.
Compounding the issue are looters and arsonists.
Evacuation orders are mandatory, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, while evacuation warnings are advisory. Authorities are urging residents to be packed and ready to move with their pets and important papers.
Fox News’ Max Bacall contributed to this report.
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