Khaled Fouad, left and Mimi Laine, right, embrace as they inspect a family member's property that was destroyed by Eaton Fire on Jan. 9, in Altadena, Calif.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Canada is sending firefighters and other resources to California to assist in the fight against five major wildfires that have ravaged Los Angeles, levelling thousands of structures, killing at least six people and putting nearly 180,000 under evacuation orders.
Minister of Emergency Preparedness Harjit Sajjan said Thursday that he had connected with U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Deanne Criswell to offer Canada’s support.
“Team Canada, with Ontario, Quebec and Alberta, is ready to deploy 250 firefighters, aircraft equipment and other resources as early as tonight,” Mr. Sajjan said in a statement, adding that the Canadian Forces are standing by to move personnel and equipment.
“Canada stands ready to support our American neighbours during this challenging time.”
Ottawa and several premiers are using their united show of support and pledge of resources to highlight the strength of U.S.-Canada relations, which are under growing strain ahead of president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. He has said he will use “economic force” to annex Canada, and Ottawa is mulling retaliatory tariffs if he moves forward with his threat of a 25-per-cent tax on all products from Canada.
Canada and the U.S. have a decades-long history of sharing resources to combat wildfires. This partnership was strengthened with a memorandum of understanding signed in 2023.
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The blaze began Tuesday with the Palisades fire in the Santa Monica Mountains and spread rapidly across the Los Angeles area, fuelled by a powerful windstorm. That fire, and the Eaton fire near Pasadena, had together scorched around 135 square kilometres by Thursday afternoon. The fires are entirely uncontained and are considered the most destructive fires in Los Angeles history.
The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, which co-ordinates firefighting resources in Canada and internationally, said it had received a request from its U.S. counterpart for two CL-415 Skimmer Airtankers with flight crew to operate in Southern California. The agency said it is fulfilling the request but could not provide a delivery timeline.
On Thursday, Mr. Trudeau posted to X a video of a Canadian waterbomber responding to the fires, writing, “Neighbours helping neighbours.” The plane is one of two from Quebec’s forest fire protection agency, SOPFEU, which sends the pair to the U.S. each fall as part of an annual contract, extended this year because of the emergency.
B.C. Forests Minister Ravi Parmar said Cal Fire, California’s fire response service, reached out to his province directly on Thursday requesting senior-level expertise from the BC Wildfire Service. Premier David Eby said province “will always stand with our American neighbours when they are in need.”
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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said her province is preparing to deploy an incident command team as well as other resources, including water bombers and night-vision helicopters.
“Good neighbours are always there for each other in times of need, and we will assist our American friends in any way they need during this crisis,” she wrote in a post to X.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said his province intends to send two waterbombers along with a contingent of 165 urban firefighters that could be ramped up to 300. On Tuesday, he appeared on Fox News to dismiss Mr. Trump’s threats to make Canada the “51st state” as “ridiculous,” and to advocate against his tariff plans.
“This is an example of what I have been saying, you know, our closest friend, our closest ally, needs help and we’re going to make sure we’re going to be there for supporting them,” Mr. Ford told reporters at Queen’s Park on Thursday.
“And I know other premiers are going to do the exact same thing. But this is what you do. When you see what’s happening on television, it’s a tragedy, what’s happening in California. The poor front line firefighters, they’re exhausted and they need some relief.”
Mr. Trudeau, who was in Washington on Thursday to attend the funeral of former president Jimmy Carter, told reporters that he had been in contact with California Governor Gavin Newsom and other U.S. officials to offer needed resources.
“Unfortunately, Canada has developed a significant amount of expertise in wildfires that are encroaching on suburban and urban areas,” he said. “This is something that we’re all going to have to deal with more in the world over the coming decades with the impacts of climate change, and we are certainly there to help our American friends.”
The Prime Minister added that he had productive meetings with a number of U.S. business leaders regarding tariffs, and again dismissed Mr. Trump’s threat of annexing Canada.
“Canadians define themselves in a whole bunch of different ways, but one of the ways we all use as shorthand is we’re Canadian because we’re not American, and that is not going to change.”
With a report from Jeff Gray in Toronto