Law Drafted to Curb Gawking in Fire Areas : Rebuilding: Ordinance would allow only residents or construction workers into scorched neighborhoods.

Scavengers sifting through ashes for melted gold and silver, and carloads of sightseers gawking at the blackened hillsides have prompted sheriff’s deputies to seek a ban on all but residents and authorized traffic entering some of Malibu’s fire-scorched areas.

Malibu City Manager David Carmany said Tuesday that he and the city attorney are drafting an emergency ordinance that will restrict traffic in some of the burned areas, particularly Las Flores Canyon.

Carmany said he expects to put the restrictions in place in the next week or so, using the emergency powers granted him by the City Council after the Nov. 2 and 3 fires.

The measure comes at the urging of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which provides Malibu’s law enforcement.

Sheriff’s Lt. Mike Moore said Tuesday that the problem has been worst along Las Flores Canyon Road, one of the few roads in the burned area that is not a cul-de-sac. Deputies on patrol have encountered many sightseers in the canyon, and he said many have stopped to explore burned properties. As soon as deputies sent them away, he said, a dozen more cars would drive by.

“It was like shoveling sand against the tide,” Moore said.

“We have had lots of complaints about unnecessary people in the fire area,” he said, “at times hampering debris removal in construction areas, and other times outright trespassing.”

Residents have told him of finding scavengers poking through the ruins and sifting through ashes for silver and precious metals melted by the fire.

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At Monday’s City Council meeting, Moore told the council that sheriff’s deputies set up roadblocks at the entrances to Las Flores Canyon on Saturday to verify the extent of the problem.

Deputies turned away 80 carloads of sightseers at the bottom of the canyon near Pacific Coast Highway, and 60 more at the top of the canyon, near Rambla Pacifico and Las Flores Canyon Road, he said.

Moore urged the city to post signs on streets in areas such as Las Flores Canyon, closing the area to anyone who is not a resident or involved in rebuilding the area. The signs would give the deputies a law enforcement tool to turn sightseers away without having to set up roadblocks.

The restrictions probably will be needed until debris removal is completed and the sightseeing attraction has subsided, he said. Enforcement would be a simple matter of asking people what address they are going to and directing them to leave if they had no legitimate reason for being in the area.

Violators could be cited for an infraction much like a traffic ticket, and if they still didn’t comply, they could be arrested, Moore said.

“Most would leave rather than go to jail,” he said.