Manitoba adds 2 new water bombers

The Manitoba government is adding two new water bombers to its firefighting aircraft fleet.

The province showed off its new Bombardier CL-415 Turboprop water bombers on Thursday. The planes have already been in service, with onebattling a fire in Selkirk, Man., this past weekend.

Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Steve Ashton said the latest planes hold more water, fly faster and make twice as many drops per hour than the province's existing CL-215 aircraft.

The new water bombers are joining one plane already in service. Another water bomber will be put in service later this year, bringing the province's fleet to four planes in total.

The three new planes will cost $126 million, the province said in a release.

Thursday's announcement comes as firefighters across Manitoba battle 63 forest fires that have burned 6,000 hectares of land so far this season.

"Despite the intermittent rains, Manitoba is on high alert for fires this year," Conservation and Water Stewardship Minister Gord Mackintosh told reporters.

"We are very aware of the dry conditions that have been there for some period of time and do cause some risk."