MONTREAL — Quebec said Friday it will send two more firefighting aircraft to California, a day after one of the province’s water bombers collided with a drone while battling the wildfires ravaging the Los Angeles area.
Quebec Public Security Minister François Bonnardel said on X that"at the request of U.S. authorities, we will be sending two additional water bombers … and their crews as early as Jan. 15."“During the terrible wildfire season of 2023, we were able to count on the help of our allies around the world. It's important to do the same for our neighbours to the south,” Bonnardel added.
The L.A. County Fire Department said the plane, known as Quebec 1, was damaged after it was struck by a civilian drone at 1 p.m. Thursday over the city’s Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, where dozens of blocks have been reduced to smouldering rubble. Stéphane Caron, prevention and communications co-ordinator at Quebec’s forest fire prevention agency, said the drone punctured the wing and remained embedded when the aircraft landed.
"Next week we'll send four other pilots and two technicians," he said, which will bring the province’s California contingent to 12 pilots and about six technicians. Quebecers deployed to California are in good spirits, Duclos said, despite some frustration about the drone incident.The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it has launched an investigation into the collision. “It’s a federal crime, punishable by up to 12 months in prison, to interfere with firefighting efforts on public lands,” the agency said on its website Thursday.
It said 4,476 Canadian citizens were registered as being in California according to a voluntary registration system that it urged Canadians to join.
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