B.C. forest Products , MacMillan & Bloedel , Pacific Logging and the Tahsis Co. formed Forest Industries Flying Tankers (FIFT) in the early 1960's . Purchased the Martin Mars cargo planes and made water bombers out of them . When FIFT was funded by those companies , they were stationed at Sproat Lake and available for fire fighting on Vancouver Island and the B.C. West Coast . There are several lakes on Vancouver Island and the ocean surrounding it to pick up water from . When the Forest holdings were taken over by major Corporations they were deemed an unnecessary expense and sold off . The powers that be in our government say they are to expensive to operate and they are limited to where the Martin Mars can operate . I have to wonder how much cost and expense would have been save if the Martin Mars had made a couple of drops on the Cameron Lake fire or if it had been sent to West Kelowna to save homes in the fire by Lake Okannogan . The Martin Mars is a tool for fighting fires . It saddens me to have seen what it is capable of in the right situation , and now see it parked when it could have been utilized this Summer . There is talk that it may be put in an Aviation Museum near Victoria B.C. , if they do there should be a statue of the men that created it along side it . Perhaps those who deemed it unusable should spend some time on the fire line with a fire axe and shovel .