Canada will deploy Royal Canadian Air Force assets to help fight wildfires in and around Los Angeles, Defense Minister Bill Blair said in a statement on Friday.
“I have approved the request to deploy RCAF_ARC assets to transport firefighters, equipment and other resources to California to help fight devastating wildfires,” Blair said in a post on X.
Blair said the Canadian Forces are “ready to move personnel and equipment to support our American neighbours.”
Firefighters have been fighting raging fires for several days, with the fire killing 10 people and destroying entire neighborhoods.
Blair’s decision comes a day after Emergency Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan said on Channel X that the federal government, along with Ontario, Quebec and Alberta, was prepared to deploy 250 firefighters, aircraft equipment and other resources as early as Thursday night.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters Thursday that he was “back and forth” with California Gov. Gavin Newsom to offer Canadian resources.
“Unfortunately, Canada has developed a great deal of experience with wildfires encroaching on suburbs and urban areas,” said Trudeau, who was in Washington to attend the funeral of former US President Jimmy Carter.
Late that day, British Columbia’s Forestry Minister, Ravi Parmer, said on Channel X that California had come to British Columbia directly, asking for the province’s “high-level expertise” to work with them.
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“California supported us in our time of need, and now we are able to reciprocate that support,” Parmer wrote.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith also said her province is preparing to deploy an incident command team to California, along with wildfire-fighting resources, such as water bombers and night-vision helicopters.
A spokesperson for Sajjan’s office told Global News that Alberta’s support was part of the overall resources he announced Thursday.
Quebec also has support in the region, with its wildfire protection agency SOPFEU saying two water bombers and their crews, contracted in the region since September, remain in California.
The Palisades Fire burns homes on a hilltop in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Wednesday, January 8, 2025.
AP Photo/Mark J. Terrell
A firefighter lights a fire in front of the Kenneth Advanced Fire in the West Hills area of Los Angeles, Thursday, January 9, 2025.
AP Photo/Ethan Swope
The fires have burned more than 10,000 homes and other buildings since Tuesday, when the first flames began to appear north of downtown Los Angeles.
Even for California, which has seen massive wildfires in previous years, the extent of the fires is at odds with the leveling of the Pacific Palisades. The fire there became the most destructive that Los Angeles had seen in modern history.
In Malibu, only charred palm fronds remain above the ruins where oceanfront homes once stood.
New fires continued to emerge as well, with the Kenneth Fire in the San Fernando Valley starting just three kilometers from a school serving as a shelter for evacuees from another fire. However, the fire was stopped by a large and aggressive response by firefighters as it moved into neighboring Ventura County.
Fire warnings remained in effect as of Friday afternoon, but winds were lower than they were earlier in the week, when hurricane-force gusts blew away embers that ignited the hillsides. That may give firefighters a chance to make more progress, but meteorologist Rich Thompson told The Associated Press that the break may be short-lived.
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