Two Quebec planes and their crews helping fight devastating L.A. wildfires

A pair of Quebec water bombers and their crews are in California helping fight the massive wildfires tearing through the Los Angeles area

Quebec-based pilots and crews from a British Columbia company are fighting high winds and heavy turbulence as they battle the massive wildfires tearing through the Los Angeles area, and on the ground Canadians with homes in the area are being forced to flee ahead of fast-moving flames.

Pascal Duclos, head pilot for the Quebec government's aerial service, said he spent several hours in the air on Tuesday, dumping dozens of loads of water over fire-devastated areas from his plane.

"What I saw was houses that were in flames, cars that were in flames, people watering their roofs, who were trying to save the building, a lot of people on the ground, firefighters trying to get down a path to get to the source of the fire," he said Wednesday in a video interview.

Duclos, who has been travelling to L.A. for 14 years as part of a government contract, says extreme dryness and winds in the region have created fast-moving flames and "extreme" turbulence that pushed their planes to the limit. When refilling, the sheer number of aircraft, as well as people on the ground — some of them civilians fleeing the flames — combine to create an "intense" situation, he said.

The planes in the air include a pair of Canadian-made water bombers belonging to the Quebec government, as well as helicopters belonging to B.C.-based Coulson Aviation, which the company says are "on the front line" of the fight.

Coulson said in a social media post that its crews are "braving high winds and challenging conditions" in the fight against the largest fire, and company CEO Wayne Coulson confirmed that the winds disrupted aircraft operations on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"The wind showed up extremely quickly, which is unusual," Coulson said. "The fire started right away, so we couldn't fly for the first three hours of the wind event. We had to wait until the wind subsided under 30 miles an hour before we could get the aircraft launched onto the fire."