It’s our second stop and we’re in Thunder Bay, Ontario!

We visited Kevin Cookson, Kevin Speak, Christ Plater and Bog Jedruch from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources at the Thunder Bay Fire Management Headquarters.

The demo took place at a tree nursery which had a nearby source of water. Kevin had to get his feet a little wet to prime the pump—but all in all the demo went well. Frédéric presented the new MARK-3® WATSON Edition and we received positive comments on the pump innovation timeline. It was a great opportunity to discuss with everyone why we decided to build a new edition pump.

First impressions

Our hosts thought we’d nailed the look of the WATSON. They also appreciated that user requests were taken into consideration during its construction and felt that the WATSON features everything a firefighter needs: it’s lighter, safer and easier to start.

Technical and mechanical feedback

Everyone was amazed by how easy the WATSON is to start.

“It’s easier than my lawn mower"

''No compression, so easy to start. Love it.''

We received great feedback on what mechanics like to measure and monitor with the diagnostic features and the visual interface. These detailed comments will help prolong the life of the unit in the field and will increase time between failures.

According to Chris, the weight of the MARK-3® was the biggest issue and the weight factor with the new MARK-3® WATSON Edition is absolutely fantastic.

Talking operations

From an operational point of view, our hosts said they couldn’t imagine firefighters not being able to operate the WATSON as it’s incredibly similar to the MARK-3—just a scaled-down version. But we're going to have to do more reliability and durability testing in the field before people have the confidence to purchase a MARK-3® WATSON Edition as a standard pump.

''At the end of the day, we must satisfy the fire crews. They are the ones who are going to say yay or nay.''

Our hosts were impressed with the WATSON pump and with our idea to demo the pump in a cross-country tour. In re-designing the pump, they let us know that we’d nailed 3 out of 4 big-ticket items: (1) lighter weight, (2) same performance same as MARK-3 or better, (3) easier starting. The only one we missed? Fuel consumption.

The tour goes on. We’re heading west!