‘Ash coming down like snow’: Montrealers in L.A. brace for unknown during ‘devastating’ wildfires

As historic wildfires continue to engulf the Los Angeles area, Montrealers in California are preparing for the worst and ready to flee at a moment’s notice.

Isabel Dréan, a film director now living in Agoura Hills, in Los Angeles County, says people close to her are in the heart of the devastation.

“Total loss, total loss. I’ve got at least five people that I know that have lost… I mean, everything,” Dréan told CityNews.

Dréan’s home is not far from the Palisades fires currently ravaging southern California, with one neighbourhood after another going up in flames.

“All we can do is look and hope that our house doesn’t burn down,” she said.

Five people have died, more than 100,000 people have been forced from their homes, and famous landmarks have come under threat. Nearly 2,000 homes, businesses and other structures have been destroyed, and the number is expected to increase.

Dréan left her Agoura Hills home and evacuated to a friend’s house near Carpinteria, outside Santa Barabara.

“It’s stressful because we don’t know if we’re going to have a home to go to when this is all over,” the film director said. “But there’s zero per cent containment right now. So the chances that it gets to my community are very, very high.”

Montrealer Roby Michael, who is vacationing in California, spoke to CityNews Thursday from the top of Malibu Hills – with a view of the devastation.

“Now it’s more intense and the smoke, sometimes the smoke getting really dark,” Michael said.

“Here at the back, it’s the smoke from L.A. So it’s pretty far from here, but we can smell the smoke and we have an ash coming down like snow.”

While Michael is safe, he worries for the people who have lost their lives and their homes, and those in the path of the wildfires. He says he’s now travelling west, away from the smoke.

“I’m in the mountain because in the morning I was normally closer to the ocean,” he said. “I don’t know if you can see the ocean. But normally I’m there down the hill, but it’s too, the smoke is too strong. We’d have difficulty to breathe.”

This isn’t the first time Dréan has experienced a situation like this one; the Montrealer was forced out of her home in 2017 during the Woolsey Fire.

She and her family recently moved into their dream home in Agoura Hills, but now she worries if it will survive the blazes.

“Everybody will be affected,” she said. “Everybody knows someone. Everybody… we’re making history, unfortunately.

“This is one of the greatest national disasters that’s happened in the United States. I think it’s not over. I don’t know what we can prepare. I think we’re in for a really bad ride.”

A pair of Quebec water bombers and their crews have been in California since Tuesday helping fight the massive wildfires, the provincial transport department said.