Fires in Los Angeles: mutual aid between Quebec expatriates persists

The Los Angeles fires are not overcoming Quebec solidarity, demonstrates a Quebec couple who are sheltering another at risk of losing their home in the flames of the Palisades fire.

“It is certain that we always have our arms wide open for other Quebecers,” assured with emotion Dominique Boutet, a Quebecer originally from Saint-Nicolas established in Oxnard, a coastal town located about 70km to the west from LA

Their house being safe from the fires, she and her husband, Carl Trudel, lent it to Nathalie Benoit and Daniel Pettigrew. These two Quebecers urgently fled their Palisades home on December 7.

Without asking questions

That morning, M^me Boutet and her husband, Carl Trudel, were on a cruise on the west coast of Mexico when they received a message from M^me Benoit announcing that fires had broken out in the city of Angels.

“Without asking myself any questions, I told him to go to our house,” says the woman who shed tears when seeing the images of the fires on social networks.

At the time of publishing this text, the house of M^me Benoit and Mr. Pettigrew, built in the mountains, still stood. “We don’t understand how it’s possible that she was spared,” the first is surprised, since everything around it burned.

“All our friends lost their homes, we lost our entire community,” she said.

However, she assures that the spirit of mutual aid that made her fall in love with the region persists, especially among Quebecers.

“The Quebec friends close to us are our only family here,” adds Dominique Boutet, who initially moved to LA with her partner, before moving in 2023.

A new feeling of insecurity had not left them for several years in Los Angeles.

“The heat was also intensifying,” she added. It was made unbearable.”

A special bond between Quebecers

The bond between the two couples persisted despite the distance. “We met in 2010 at a Quebecois party in Los Angeles,” remembers M^me Boutet. Over the course of corn roasts and sugar shack-themed dinners, the two couples became great friends.

“We are closer to Quebecers than Americans, even after 15 years in California,” she confides. When we meet, we like each other because we were raised the same way. It’s certain that we connect more easily.”

The group is less active today, but the solidarity remains. “A few years ago, we hosted a Quebec friend who was having a difficult time,” she gives as an example. One day, we introduced her to my daughter’s teacher and they have now been together for seven years and have two children.”

On Saturday, Daniel Pettigrew and Natalie Benoit left their friends’ house to return to LA, to an Airbnb because the former had to go back to work. “We are a little disappointed, we were ready to keep them longer,” admits M^me Boutet.

And the same goes for all Quebecers in need.