A team of firefighters from Mexico arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday, joining the personnel of more than 14,000 already battling the Palisades and Eaton fires in the Los Angeles area.
Around 3 p.m. Saturday, a crew of more than 70 firefighters and disaster relief workers from Mexico’s National Forestry Commission and Ministry of Defense flew in to the county to provide additional international support, according to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
On Monday, Jan. 13, the crew of Mexican firefighters will be going out on their first 24-hour shift to aid in the Palisades firefighting efforts, according to Chloe Castillo, a public information officer for Cal Fire.
The crew spent Sunday, Jan. 12, getting fitted for their personal protective equipment and undergoing a five-hour wildland training in Cal Fire’s operation center in Beaumont, according to Marco Rodriguez, an LA County Fire Department public information officer assigned to the Palisades fire.
“Just to make sure that the wildland training that we commonly use is the same one they commonly use,” Castillo said.
Their team of command staff will be integrating with that of the Zuma Beach command post. The Mexican firefighters will be embedded with the hand crews to “seamlessly” firefight for the duration of their stay, said Rodriguez.
This international effort will benefit future firefighting for the Mexican crew.
“It’s basically just going to take lessons learned here and take them back to Mexico so that they can use them in their command structure,” Castillo said.
Newsom thanked Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, saying “California is deeply grateful for President @ClaudiaShein’s support as we work to suppress the Los Angeles wildfires,” on X on Friday.
Canada has also been supplying support. Two CL-415 planes, which help battle fires, are annually sent to California from the Canadian province of Quebec under a 31-year-old agreement between the governments, according to reports.
On Thursday, then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted a video of one of the planes dropping water over the fires, captioned “Neighbours helping neighbors.”
Support from the two countries join resources from Northern California and other Western states including Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho and Washington, officials said.