Saskatchewan to use crop-dusting planes to help crews fight wildfires

Saskatchewan is looking to improve its response to wildfires by using commercial crop-dusting planes to assist fire-fighting crews on the ground.

The Government Relations Ministry, which will manage the program, says protocols are being finalized and should be ready by the summer.

The Ministry of Environment's aircraft will still be used to fight fires in northern Saskatchewan.

Crop-dusters are to be used in central and southern Saskatchewan.

The cost of deploying the planes will fall on the requesting organization.

Travis Karle, who owns Accumark Airspray operating mainly out of the Nipawin airport, says crop-dusters are efficient and fast.

Karle says he has been working with MLA Fred Bradshaw for the last few years to get the program in place.

"There are agriculture operators, like myself, who have one or two or multiple turbine aircraft. They are 500-gallon machines and that's what they are fighting fires with all over the world," he said.

"Our turnaround is so quick. I'm guessing within a 60-minute period we could probably put four to six drops on a fire within 30 miles."

About 26 pilots from the Saskatchewan Aerial Applicators Association have been trained so far. Toward the end of this month, once seeding is done, they'll do some practice dumps to demonstrate how well the aircraft work, Karle said.

The 2015 wildfire season saw more than 200 fires burning across British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Karle said the response that year could have been much better had the program been in place.