By Canadian Press

‘Water’s away’: How Canadian helicopters and waterbombers are helping tame L.A. fires

Jan 15, 2025 | 2:58 PM

A long line of fire and billowing smoke are seen through the helicopter’s windshield as it swoops towards one of the several fires burning in the Los Angeles area.

“Three, two, one, water’s away,” one of the pilots says as a payload of water gushes out of the helicopter and onto the flames. “Looks good,” another voice is heard saying.

British Columbia-based Coulson Aviation released the video of its crew “delivering a precision water drop on the Palisades Fire in California.”

Coulson’s helicopters as well as waterbombing planes provided by Quebec have played a high-profile role in the battle against the fires that have claimed at least 25 lives and destroyed thousands of homes.

Quebec’s contribution is expanding with two more water bombers heading to California on Wednesday.

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The “aerial firefight” has been essential as blistering winds have prevented groundcrews from accessing the flames, said Wayne Coulson, CEO of Coulson Aviation.

When gusts get up to 140 kilometres per hour, like they did in the region last week, “there is no hope in stopping that fire. Everyone just had to evacuate,” he said.

“That created the chaos, and this firefight has been a little bit different than we’ve seen in the past,” he said in an interview on Wednesday. “It really became an aerial firefight. The only way to tame this fire, to get (firefighters) on the ground in there, was to use the large assets and the helicopters.”

Coulson Aviation — based in Port Alberni, B.C. — operates three Boeing CH-47 Chinook helitankers with tanks that hold more than 11,000 litres, as well as an “over-watch helicopter that runs intelligence,” including thermal imaging when deployed at night.

They are contracted with local power utility Southern California Edison.

Coulson said the company has dropped more than a million gallons — or 4.5 million litres — of water over the fires in the last week, 70 per cent of which was released at night.

Quebec’s two extra CL-415 aircraft bring the province’s total California aid package to four water bombers, 12 pilots and six technicians.

Pascal Duclos, head pilot of the Quebec team dispatched to California, called the wildfire situation in the state a “tragedy,” with so much loss.

“The infrastructure, the schools, everything has to be rebuilt. It’s incredible,” Duclos said during a news conference from the L.A. area on Wednesday, describing how he has seen the devastation grow with each passing day.

Duclos said dry conditions and strong winds risk sparking new fires, and he confirmed that one of the Quebec planes that was grounded last week after a collision with a drone is back in operation.

Coulson said winds had lessened by Wednesday.

“Right now, I don’t believe any structures are being threatened, so they’re just mopping up the other two big fires,” he said. “Hopefully we get through the next couple days and it stays relatively quiet, but there’s a lot of air assets ready to go, so everybody’s on high alert.”

He noted morale among staff has remained high throughout the fire fight.

“The adrenalin starts flowing, and everybody wants to help,” he said of his pilots. “We had an extremely aggressive air force supporting these fires because everybody knew the devastation that was happening on the ground.”

He said there is much to learn from the fire fight in California.

Local authorities have told him that without aviation resources — most of which were only deployable at night — the fires “could have been double in size, easily,” Coulson said.

“Having that air force at night is absolutely critical. It’s something that Canada is going to have to work toward, whether it be with the agencies or with government and supplying heavy assets that can go out and tackle these wildfires at night.”

Support from other states as well as international partners, including from Canada, have been essential, he said.

“What’s wonderful is to have that kind of support because fire knows no boundaries, and so for us that operate in the United States, Canada, Australia, Chile — it’s the same story, just different faces, so it’s great to have that support internationally.”

Luc Dugas, an engineer with Quebec’s forest fire prevention agency, said the province stands ready to deploy more firefighters if requested by California officials, noting how the state helped in Quebec during its record wildfire season in 2023.

“All the countries that have experienced forest fires have no choice but to find other ways of helping each other,” he said.

He noted that firefighters from B.C. and Alberta were deployed because of their proximity to the state.

“At this moment, we are able to make about 60 firefighters available. Our firefighters are ready to go to California,” he said. “There is no request on the table right now.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 15, 2025.

Brieanna Charlebois and Joe Bongiorno, The Canadian Press