GUEST COLUMN – It’s time we created a National Wildfire Fighting Air Force

By TONY KLANCAR
Guest Columnist

WHERE WAS THE HELP?

Where were the water bombers?

With those words the reporter walked through the devastation of the former town of Enterprise, Northwest Territories. She turned to the residents and asked those questions. The residents were dumbfounded that nobody came to help them.

We’re doing all we can! Those words come from the mouths of ministers and officials and government agencies. And yet when you see the scenes of devastation in West Kelowna and the Shuswap .. the disaster that happened in Lytton.. the devastation of Fort McMurray.. the 300 or more homes that were lost in Kelowna and Barriere 10 years ago and the reports of wildfire sweeping across the entire country you have to ask yourself – is the government really doing all it can?

I believe the men and women of the fire services are doing all they can because they’re using every resource available to them. But is the Province or the Government of Canada doing all they can? Not a chance… that’s what I and many others say.

Two years ago I wrote an open letter to the two MLA’s who represent Kamloops, British Columbia. I also sent a copy of that letter to Mel Rothenburger who published it in his column the Armchair Mayor.

SEE ALSO: B.C. needs to get its own Air Wing to defeat the wildfires

In that letter I stated a lot of facts about the loss of timber, the loss of land, homes and businesses. I talked about the health effects of smoke and the enormous cost of fighting fires. In that letter I called for the establishment of a provincial Air Wing with dedicated resources to fight wildfire. I called for those dedicated resources consisting of the world’s most advanced firefighting aircraft.. an aircraft built by a British Columbia company headquartered in Victoria.

That aircraft is the DHC-515 and it is analogous to the old Martin Mars that everybody keeps talking about and asking that it be brought back into the fight. Sadly the Martin Mars is a 70 year old aircraft that has no capability of returning to active service. It requires three hours of maintenance for every hour of flight time and is just not practical. As much as I love the Mars there are no parts depots anywhere in the world that can supply stuff for that aircraft.

The modern replacement for the Martin Mars is a fleet of DHC-515 night capable water scooping aircraft. Manufactured by De Havilland Canada and Viking Air, headquartered in Victoria, British Columbia, they are highly sought after by knowledgeable authorities around the world. And yet British Columbia continues to burn virtually out of control while foreign governments line up to buy these aircraft. To my knowledge British Columbia and Canada are not even in the order book.

This fire season has been described as the worst fire season ever. And yet the government’s response is to continue with the same sorts of contracted fire services that they used for the past decades. The fires are only forecast to get worse, by all accounts global warming is not going away soon. We will not stop it in the near future by putting carbon taxes on gasoline, home heating fuels and our furnaces. Any changes that carbon taxes result in will take 30 or more years to become evident. In the meantime, British Columbia and Canadian communities will continue to burn.

Since I wrote my letter to the Honorable ministers the order book at De Haviland Canada and Viking Air — the British Columbia manufacturers of the DHC-515 — has filled up. The order book now stands at about 10 years for fulfillment.. primarily of foreign orders. Other countries and jurisdictions recognize the value of the most incredible firefighting aircraft on the planet.

Scooping 6,000 L of water in 30 seconds from nearby lakes and being able to deliver it to fires far exceeds the capacity of aircraft that have to land at airports and be refilled. It is very evident that we need to ramp up the capability to rapidly attack fires, and to fight fire at night before it grows to hundreds and thousands of hectares.

Canada has recently committed 14 billion dollars for advanced F-35 aircraft to defend us from the Russians and the Chinese. Isn’t it time that Canada and the provinces collectively spend $14 billion dollars to defend you and me, our homes, properties properties and businesses from wildfire?

British Columbia alone spent a billion dollars in the last few years fighting wildfires.. and yet we watch our homes and communities continue to burn. As the situation gets worse it’s evident that we need a NATIONAL advanced aerial capability to put out wildfire. Other countries have created aerial wildfire fighting services as part of their air forces because those forces are in the business of training pilots with the discipline and rigor needed. In Canada we hear.. Oh that is not the mission of our military. Government needs to make it their mission! Otherwise this is just more of the same old same old rhetoric .. we are doing all we can.

It’s time we get our orders on the books and even negotiate licensing agreements so that other companies can manufacture the DHC-515 for Canada. It’s only going to get worse.

Where was the help?

Where were the water bombers?

Tony Klancar worked in provincial and municipal government for 42 years. Now retired, he is an aircraft enthusiast and a keen observer/advocate of aerial wildfire fighting technologies.