A total of 20 people have been arrested across Los Angeles for looting homes and businesses evacuated during the spate of wildfires burning across the city.

The arrests were announced during a press conference Thursday morning with the Los Angeles County sheriff, Robert Luna, who called the criminal acts “Absolutely unacceptable.”

“Over last night and this morning, we are up to 20 individuals who chose to go into our areas and deprive these poor people — who have been through so much — of their property,” Mr. Luna said. “I’m going to give direction to our department members — as you know, when we have an evacuation order, by law, if you remain in that area, you are guilty of a misdemeanor. If you commit certain crimes, it could jump up to a felony. I’m going to be asking our employees to start enforcing that.”

The sheriff pointed out that the directive was “very different” from enforcing a curfew.

“I don’t have to wait for the sun to go down or the sun to come up. If you are in one of these areas and you do not belong there, you are going to be subject to arrest. I hope that is as clear as I can make it,” he added.

The city of Santa Monica declared a curfew Wednesday night because of the looting, the Los Angeles county supervisor, Lindsey Horvath, said.

 Mr. Luna appeared with other city officials at a press conference on Wednesday and issued an initial warning to potential looters after the first two arrests were made.

“It’s always sad when I have to say this, but part of our responsibility is to make sure that no one loots or steals from our residents, our community members who are already being impacted,” he said. “And I’m sad to report, we made two arrests this morning for looting already.”

“So, if you are thinking about coming into any of these areas to steal from our residents, I’m going to tell you something. You’re going to be caught, you’re going to be arrested, and you’re going to be prosecuted.”