As wildfires continue to rage across B.C., the province has reportedly agreed to bring back one of the iconic Martin Mars water bombers.
More than 17,000 people signed a Change.org petition calling for the government to sign the lone remaining Martin Mars water bomber in Port Alberni to a five-year contract. According to the Alberni Valley News, a contract has been signed with the Coulson Group for use of the bomber.
Its sister aircraft was recently sold to a U.S. military museum in Florida.
An agreement has not yet been confirmed by the provincial government, however.
CEO Wayne Coulson told the paper the province had been notified of the company’s rates and a contract is in place. According to Coulson, the company is waiting on orders from the government, and the earliest the plane could take flight is Thursday.
Last year, in a Castanet interview with Wildfire Management Branch spokesperson Navi Saini, she explained the province's move to amphibious skimmers called Fire Bosses.
"It's a more modern plane, and it's more versatile in that it can drop both retardant and water. It's more cost effective and more efficient to have these on board.” Saini said at the time.
According to the province, the Martin Mars is more limited in the types of fires it can fight and the bodies of water it can operate from.
"The new skimmers can take water from about 1,700 lakes, where as the Martin Mars could only scoop water from 113,” she stated.
Minister of Forests Steve Thomson reiterated that sentiment earlier Monday to CTV, when he said that although the Martin Mars is an iconic resource, it is old.
“There are lots of challenges with that resource. It’s not the most cost-effective, and it can only be used in very strategic situations. What I can say today is that we are in discussions with the owner of the Martin Mars to see if something can be worked out as needed,” he told CTV.
The aircraft, built in the 1940s and used by the U.S. Navy during the Second World War, is said to to drop the largest possible amount of water on a fire in the shortest possible time.
The Coulson Group claims the Mars waterbombers can be in the air in 10 minutes and, based on historical data, each can make a drop every 15 minutes, covering an area of up to 1.6 hectares.
The Coulson water bombers have not been contracted by the province since 2013.