Fire in California: “When I was flying, I saw houses and cars on fire”

Quebec pilots currently fighting the flames in Los Angeles have never seen fires of this magnitude in the region.

“When I was flying, I saw houses and cars on fire, people watering their roofs and trying to save their buildings,” says Pascal Duclos, chief pilot at the Quebec Government Air Service, in an interview with The Journal live from Los Angeles.

Since Tuesday, eight Quebec pilots and four technicians with two Canadair CL-415 tanker planes have been helping Californian emergency services fight the flames which have already ravaged hundreds of homes and forced the evacuation of thousands of people.

These two government air service aircraft are present on American soil as part of an annual contract, which dates back around thirty years, which has been extended.

«[Mardi] each aircraft made 25 drops before noon. In the afternoon, the conditions had deteriorated a little because of the winds,” explains the man who has worked for 14 years in the government air service.

Because of the squalls, it was actually impossible to get water from the sea. The teams had to find another place to collect water.

“It slowed down our operations a little because it was further away,” explains the man who has worked in the Air Service for almost 15 years.

During the four and a half hours of flight on Tuesday, the Quebec crews witnessed terrible spectacles.

“I have never seen a situation like this,” illustrates the chief pilot.

Intense

The Quebec team is on alert and must be ready to intervene at any time, starting its day at 7 a.m. and having to remain operational until sunset.

“It’s a very intense situation. When we come to drop, we see civilians underneath trying to save their lives, there are firefighters. And in the airspace, we see helicopters, other planes, it’s very busy,” he says.

“I expect there to be new fires because of the winds, there are a lot of embers being pushed by the wind and [qui vont] therefore light other fires,” explains Mr. Duclos.

Not having flown on Wednesday, he has not yet been able to see the extent of the damage caused by the flames, but he expects to find a cemetery of houses reduced to ashes.

Geneviève Case, a Quebecer who has lived in Los Angeles for more than 20 years, was happy to see the red and yellow Canadairs flying in the sky Tuesday from her home.

“It warmed my heart to see that we were helping,” she told Journal.

More Quebec firefighters?

In a publication on X, the Minister of Public Security, François Bonnardel, indicated that SOPFEU could send additional firefighters, if California so wishes.

Stéphane Caron, spokesperson for SOPFEU, indicated by telephone that no request had been made to this effect at the moment.