Dozens of Los Angeles residents — some armed — are defying evacuation orders to protect their homes in ‘Wild West’
Share:
For one Altadena resident, defending his neighborhood gives him ‘a sense of value and purpose’. As the wildfires ravage Southern California, dozens of residents have refused to evacuate and have instead opted to defend their scorched properties from blazes and looters.
![[A member of the National Guard stands in front of a road closed due to the Eaton Fire. Some under evaucation orders are now defending their property and describe it as the ‘Wild West’]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/15/20/SEI235885584.jpg)
Even without clean water or electricity, the stragglers remain firm since they may not be allowed to return if they leave, due to the ongoing threat of downed power lines, weakened trees and fire tornadoes. “We do feel like we’re in the Wild West,” Aaron Lubeley, a 53-year-old lawyer, told the outlet.
![[A chimney remains at the site of a home that was destroyed by the Palisades Fire. Police officers had been escorting small groups of residents to their properties so they could check on them — a practice that ended Sunda]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/15/20/SEI235972262.jpg)
When the evacuation orders were first issued on January 7, his wife and adult son fled their home — so fast that his wife forgot her purse — but Lubeley wasn’t around. When he finally arrived home, he scooped up his family’s passports, photos and other belongings. The next day, he came back to see his neighborhood covered in ash.
![[Aaron Lubeley prays with volunteers who stopped by to drop supplies outside his burned home during the Eaton fire. “I could be having a Manhattan and a steak, but I couldn’t live with myself if I did that and my neighbor’s house goes up,” Lubeley said]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/15/20/SEI236005992.jpg)
“If I had stayed and saved my house, I could have saved three of my neighbors’ [homes],” he told the Journal. He has stayed at his home, with a 9mm handgun, ever since. “I could be having a Manhattan and a steak, but I couldn’t live with myself if I did that and my neighbor’s house goes up,” Lubeley said, noting that defending his neighborhood “gives me a sense of value and purpose.”.
