'Fingers crossed': B.C.'s Coulson Aviation describes dangerous battle against Los Angeles wildfires

Crews flying helicopters owned by Port Alberni-based Coulson Aviation that are fighting wildfires around Los Angeles caught a break Friday as winds fanning the flames have died down.

“The weekend looks good,” said company CEO Wayne Coulson. “I think we’ve got a 36- to 48-hour reprieve to get the house in order, for our part anyways.”

Coulson operates three twin-rotor Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter tankers on contract with the utility firm Southern California Edison to act as a 24-hour quick-reaction fire response across three counties. Friday’s weather was an improvement since Tuesday when the howling Santa Ana winds kept them grounded.

“The ground (firefighters) need us because they need us to knock down the head (of the fire) so they can get in there and do the hard work they need to do,” Coulson said. “Without air support, everybody’s at risk.”

And with the break, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday that while “these fires are not out, we’re going to make a lot of progress.”

It also gave officials a chance to survey the devastating toll, with fires claiming 10 lives to date, scorching an area larger than San Francisco and destroying more than 10,000 homes and other structures this week.

Huge swaths of the picturesque community of Pacific Palisades and palatial waterfront homes in Malibu have been wiped out.

On Friday, B.C. joined other provinces offering assistance. Premier David Eby said California requested a senior management team from B.C.’s wildfire service, and added that he is working to send firefighting crews as part of Canada’s national response.

Ravi Parmar, B.C.’s minister of forests, said: “California has supported us in our time of need, and B.C. is now able to reciprocate that support. A senior management team from the B.C. Wildfire Service is departing imminently, and we’re working on sending a crew of frontline wildland firefighters.”

Federal Emergency Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan said Canada is ready to deploy some 250 firefighters, aircraft and other equipment. Defence Minister Bill Blair said the Royal Canadian Air Force also has a transport plane on standby to help move people when needed.

Crews, however, do remain at the mercy of the weather, and hurricane-force winds on Tuesday gave a devastating head start to fires that Coulson said no one could have stopped.

“We were four hours before we could get to it,” Coulson said. “It was so unbelievably chaotic (with) the radios going and the call centre going.”

The Chinook helicopters can’t fly in winds over 50 km/h, and winds Tuesday were howling at 90 to 120 km/h.

“We were dispatched several times throughout the night, but every time we would get around the Malibu Hills, we’d have to turn around,” Coulson said. “We got on the fires about 11 a.m. the next day and we’ve been going off and on since.”

Their day-shift crews have spent much of their time snuffing out new fire starts, Coulson said. The night-shift crews switch to structure protection on the larger Palisades and Eaton fires.

Even with calmer winds, Coulson said they have had periods where gusts have topped 90 km/h, “so we’re very mindful of what the weather is doing.”

Coulson has a long history of aerial firefighting in California. In 2007, its now-retired Martin Mars water bomber made an impression battling wildfires around San Diego that destroyed some 1,800 homes and displaced 500,000 residents.

Coulson said their latest efforts with Chinook helicopters started in 2019 when the company signed a contract with Orange County, which worked well enough to attract Southern California Edison’s attention.

In 2023, Coulson signed a US$16 million contract to provide quick-reaction fire-suppression response for the Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura county fire departments.

“Fifty per cent of our flying in the (quick reaction force) program over the last four years has been at night,” Coulson said. He added that in more favourable weather conditions, they had “caught a lot of fires” that were projected to do considerable damage.

However, the break in weather that crews are experiencing into the weekend is expected to end Sunday. The forecast calls for the Santa Ana winds to pick up again through most of next week.

“Everyone’s got their fingers crossed for Monday, Tuesday,” Coulson said.

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With files from The Canadian Press, Associated Press and Bloomberg