The federal government says it expects to send resources to Los Angeles from Thursday evening to contribute to the fight against deadly and devastating forest fires who killed at least five people.
Civil Protection Minister Harjit Sajjan said in an article on X that the federal government, alongside Ontario, Quebec and Alberta, was prepared to deploy 250 firefighters, aviation equipment and other resources “starting tonight”.
He added that the Canadian Armed Forces were also prepared to move personnel and equipment.
Ottawa’s planned move comes just hours after the Canadian Interagency Wildfire Center (CIFFC) said in a statement to Global News that it received a request overnight from the National Interagency Fire Centre. The request was for two CL-415 skimmer air tankers with flight crews to operate in Southern California.
“CIFFC is working closely with Canadian member agencies to process the request,” a spokesperson wrote in an email.
CIFFC said it could not provide a timetable for when the air tankers might be delivered, adding that it was working to identify potential resources if more requests for aid came in.
As of Thursday, no other CIFFC resources were in the United States.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in Washington, D.C., on Thursday that he had “traded” with California Governor Gavin Newsom to offer Canadian resources.
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“Unfortunately, Canada has developed considerable expertise in dealing with wildfires that encroach on suburban and urban areas,” said Trudeau, who was in Washington for the funeral of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
“This is an issue that we will all face more of around the world in the coming decades with the impacts of climate change, and we are certainly here to help our American friends.”
Trudeau earlier told CNN that he was speaking with Newsom via text message and that Canada had offered California “a huge amount of equipment that they’re already accepting.”
SOPFEU, Quebec’s forest fire protection agency, said Wednesday only two water bombers and their crews which were already present in the region are helping to fight massive forest fires.
According to SOPFEU, the two planes are sent to the United States every fall under an annual contract, which was extended this year until January due to the emergency.
Alberta too plans to provide assistanceannounced Prime Minister Danielle Smith on X on Thursday.
“We are preparing to deploy incident command team support to California, as well as additional resources to fight the wildfires, including water bombers and night vision helicopters,” she wrote about X.
A spokesperson for Sajjan’s office confirmed that the support announced by Smith is part of the overall resources the minister referred to in his X message.
Firefighters in the Hollywood Hills were able to eliminate a major threat from the Sunset Fire that broke out Wednesday evening as flames approached the heart of the city. In the morning, authorities lifted an evacuation order for the area.
Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Erik Scott said they were able to bring the fire under control because “we hit it hard and fast and Mother Nature was a little kinder to us today than she was.” “she wasn’t yesterday.”
The fires have been raging for several days and have caused thousands of structures to burn, with the Pacific Palisades fire becoming the city’s most destructive in modern history after about 1,000 structures burned Wednesday.
—with files from Sean Boynton and Phil Heidenreich of Global News, The Canadian Press and Associated Press
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