LOS ANGELES, Jan 14 — A contingent of 72 Mexican firefighters received a briefing from US fire officials yesterday alongside their American counterparts before heading out to help fight the wildfires plaguing Southern California.
The group is made up of military specialists, including doctors, engineers and search and rescue personnel, as well as a group of firefighters from Mexico's equivalent of the US Forest Service.
The major wildfires that have been raging in the Los Angeles area since last Tuesday have claimed the lives of at least two dozen people and burned an area the size of Washington, DC.
More than 90,000 residents have been forced to flee their homes and entire neighborhoods have been incinerated.
The Mexican team will join firefighters from seven states and Canada to try to bring the inferno under control.
"They are now assigned to the fire where they're going to be engaging on the fire line, basically working as a hand crew," said Edwin Zuniga, public information officer for Cal Fire. "So (it means) building a containment line, a reinforcement containment line, engaging on the fire directly if need so."
Laura Velazquez Alzua, the National Coordinator of Civil Protection for Mexico, spoke about the importance of the international cooperation.
"We have the instruction of the President of Mexico, Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum, to come and help and contribute with the experience and knowledge of 72 specialists in firefighting," she said.
"We are sure that Mexico is a supportive people, a people that reinforces its brotherhood with the people of the United States," she added.
Meanwhile, electricity provider Southern California Edison was hit by multiple lawsuits on Monday claiming its electrical equipment started one of the major wildfires currently raging in the Los Angeles area, according to court filings.
The legal actions appear to be the first of hundreds, or even thousands, of claims that may arise from the wildfires.
The lawsuits were filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of homeowners, renters, business owners and others with properties destroyed by the Eaton Fire in the Pasadena area.
The suits cited multiple eyewitness accounts and images that appeared to show a fire at the base of a transmission tower owned by Southern California Edison before powerful Santa Ana wind gusts quickly spread the flames.
— Reuters
