Damaged water bomber will be out of service for at least 1 more fire season
Lack of action to replace or repair water bomber poses safety risk, say opposition
One of Newfoundland and Labrador's five water bombers has been out of service since 2018 after being damaged, and CBC News has learned it won't be back in service until 2026 at the earliest.
That would mark the eighth season the province will have operated without its full fleet. With more than 80 wildfires across the province this year, Labrador West MHA Jordan Brown told CBC News having one of the province's five water bombers out of commission for at least another season "puts a lot of our assets and our forests in jeopardy."
"We had Churchill Falls evacuated, we had Labrador City evacuated.… In every single one of those cases for forest firefighting, we had to call upon other provinces to come and help us," said Brown. "Obviously we aren't prepared to fight a fire."
A statement from Transportation and Infrastructure Department spokesperson Maria Browne to CBC News last week said the provincial government is confident in its ability "to fight forest fires with the wildfire suppression resources currently in place."
Newfoundland and Labrador is currently relying on four CL-415 water bombers. Going without the fifth for another season, Jordan Brown says, is a concern.
PC Opposition leader Tony Wakeham says the government needs to think about public safety and put a concrete plan in place while the fifth aircraft is out of service.
"That decision should have been made back in 2018: whether they were going to repair [the water bomber] or whether they were going to replace it," Wakeham said. "Instead, they're putting Newfoundland and Labrador, and public safety, at risk."
Brown said it's "absolutely unreal" how long it took the government to decide the future of the water bomber.
This past season, firefighters from New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario helped suppress the Labrador City and Churchill Falls fires with the use of a "bird dog" aircraft.
Documents obtained by CBC News through an access-to-information request show the provincial government has considered purchasing a bird dog.
On Friday, Premier Andrew Furey confirmed it will obtain one in the future.
"We've already committed to a bird dog. I'm not sure exactly where that is in the timeline, but we have committed to procuring a bird dog," Furey told reporters.
A bird dog is a type of plane that leads a fleet of water bombers, flown by a pilot and an "air attack officer." Bird dogs control the air traffic in a fire zone and are able to pinpoint the best area to drop water by flying 100 to 1,000 feet above it.
Provinces such as Quebec and Ontario have systematically used bird dog aircraft to coordinate water bomber operations since the 1980s.
"It's another one of those things that is a great asset to have. It would bring our water bomber fleet and our operations into the 21st century," said Brown, who said he saw a bird dog in action in Labrador over the summer. "This is another thing where we just kicked down the road to make a decision and now it's going to cost us more money because of indecisiveness."
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With files from Patrick Butler
