Nova Scotia rejects call for own water bomber

Hot on the heels of a major blaze that displacedalmost 5,000 people and destroyed two homes, Premier Rodney MacDonald says Nova Scotia has all the equipment it needs to fight large fires.

The province got help from New Brunswick,Quebec,andNewfoundland and Labrador, which sent aircraft to help put out the raging blaze in the Porters Lake area, near Dartmouth, last weekend.

The opposition says that shows Nova Scotia needs its own water bomber, but Premier Rodney MacDonald rejects that assessment.

"I feel very confident that everything was done that could have been done, and had we needed to take it to another step further we would have got planes from Ontario, out west, from down in the United States," MacDonald said.

Nova Scotia has shared agreements with other provinces for situations like this, he added.

The fire erupted Friday, forcing the evacuation of some homes and the closure of Highway 107. The blaze grew as high winds fanned the flames. By Saturday, nearly 5,000 people were forced to flee.

Two homes in a subdivision on Candy Mountain Road near Mineville were destroyed.

Provincial officials said firefighters were aided by three air tankers from New Brunswick, a CL-215 water bomber from Newfoundland and a larger CL-415 water bomber from Quebec.

To Liberal MLA Leo Glavine, the lesson to be learned is that Nova Scotia needs its own water bomber.

Helicopters usually enough

"With the value of our forests, I don't think we underscore the importance of having the best means available to fight these fires," Glavine said.

Walter Fanning, director of forest protection for the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources, said the province's five helicopters are usually enough to handle any fire, but the weekend blaze was rare.

"This here was an incredibly intense and large fire," he said. "As far as fire size, we haven't seen really anything like this in the last eight to 10 years.

"Had the wind changed on us there could have been hundreds of homes possibly damaged or destroyed."

Fanning said the large water bombers brought in from Newfoundland and Quebec each cost about $30 million, so for the rare large fire it's cheaper to call on others for help.