'Barely breathable': Former Montrealer recounts escape from California fires

Former Montrealer Laurent Eyquem was on the road with his family of four Friday morning, headingsouth through California in search of a safe place to stay the night as theyfledfires alongside more than 150,000 other people.

He's not sure if his house is still standing and isgrateful to have made it out alive after fires ripped through his home cityof Thousand Oaks, locatedabout 65 kilometres northwest of Los Angeles.

At least five people have been killed so far as the fast-moving fires burnrelentlessly across the dry, densely populated landscape.

"Happy to be safe and sound with my family," the film composer told CBC Montreal's Homerun.

"I am just a little worried for my home, for my studio. It's my life that is there. But, being alive, you can make it work and find a way to continue if everybody is safe and sound."

Eyquemis originally from France, but he also holds Canadian citizenship and resided in Montreal for a number of years. He moved to California in 2012.

First the shooting, then the fires

Thursday was a tough day for Eyquem and his familyschool was cancelled for his 14-year-old son after amass shooting in a neighbourhood bar left 13 dead the night before.

Eyquem saidhisneighbour's son was among those killed.

• Shooting at California bar leaves 13 dead, gunman ID'd as ex-marine

The shooting and the fallout from it was already emotional, he said, but then fires came ripping in from two directions, threatening his familyhome inNewburyPark, a town located within Thousand Oaks city limits.

"It was extremely fast," he said. "I had time to pick up my daughter. My wife went to pick up our son."

Highway 101 was shut down by authorities as the fire closed in, turning main streets into parking lots, but Eyquem managed to navigate back roads to his home. He quickly loaded up his dogs, his cat, passports, some clothes and whatever data-packed hard drives he could save.

The family packed theircar and truck while the air filled with smoke and the sky darkened.

Fire trucks came pouring into the neighbourhood while helicopters, flew overhead, dropping fire retardant chemicals on homes not a block from his own.

"It started to be barely breathable," he said. "When I went to the garage to go to pick up the luggage and try to grab as many things as possible, it started to be extremely smokey. The dogs were extremely nervous. It was smelling smoke everywhere through the home."

All they could hear, he said, were the helicopters.

Surrounding hotels all booked, roads packed

He got the family pets to a kennel a safe distance away, and the four of them managed to find a hotel for the night out of the fires' reach, but not everybody was so lucky.

Hotels were all booked in the surrounding area, he said.

"It's impossible to have a hotel room," said Eyquem. "There are families with kids in the lobby, with babies staying there, hoping there will be a cancellationof a room."

With family locatedfurther south in Orange County, he has a place to stay Friday night,but he is still unsure how his property has fared.

"We have no information," he said. "The road is closed. Nobody is getting back."

For now, he said, he and his family are taking it "hour by hour," tuning into the news and hoping for the best.

With files from CBCMontreal's Homerun