Fires around Los Angeles: anxious moments for two Saguenay women

Two Saguenay women are experiencing anxiety-inducing moments in Los Angeles. Lindsay Bélanger, who works in California, has been hosting her mother, Caroline Riverin, since last week, and they can see the fires from their balcony.

They are safe for now, but the situation remains very unstable. Five people lost their lives.

Beverly Hills has accustomed Lindsay Bélanger and her mother to more joyful sights from her residential tower. They feel quite far from the fires but too close at the same time.

Maybe twenty minutes in, we’re surrounded, because there’s not just one fire, there are four or five at the moment, so we’re surrounded everywhere.said Lindsay Bélanger, who is a real estate agent and model.

His mother, Caroline, arrived from Saguenay last week. His stay turned out to be a lot more upsetting than expected.

We watch the news every 10 minutes, every 20 minutes. We watch the news all night long too because when it was dark, we saw all the hills on firesays Lindsay Bélanger.

There is smoke everywhere, it is dark and the atmosphere is constantly tense. For the moment, they are not covered by the evacuation order which affects more than 70,000 people in Los Angeles and they do not intend to leave on their own.

Where are we going? The highways are crowded with people. Where do you evacuate, basically? Because we are surrounded… Where do we go? worried Lindsay Bélanger.

In this flow of citizens on the run, horror stories multiply around them day by day.

There are a lot of people, a lot of friends who were forced to evacuate their homes, who lost their homes. Earlier, my mother met someone in the elevator: she literally lost her entire house. Everything burned. She said: “I lost everything, I lost everything.” It’s really sadcontinued the real estate agent.

Both women are hopeful they will remain safe.

SOPFEU planes on site

Law enforcement is hard at work fighting the five fires ravaging the southern Golden State.

Help comes from everywhere, including the Society for the Protection of Forests Against Fire (SOPFEU), which lends equipment every winter to this American state.

Two Quebec government air tankers lend a helping hand to Los Angeles County, California, each year. This contract has been in place for almost 30 years with the government of Quebec and the State of California.Josée Poitras, spokesperson for SOPFEU.

For the moment, Quebec has not received any request for support from forest firefighters, but the situation could change quickly with the violent winds which complicate the task of teams on the ground.