Q&A: WATERAX VP on 100 years of wildland product inventions and what’s next

Learn about the WATERAX tradition of inventing innovative wildland firefighting pumps and how it made a teenager fall in love with firefighting and the company – all the way to the vice president’s office.

Why is a Canadian company in a unique position to serve the global wildland fire market?

Canadian forests occupy 45 percent of the country’s total continental area. Our company’s roots in are in Canada. We’ve had our share of wildland fires that have driven the demand for portable pump innovations.


In fact, the history of fire pumps in Canada dates back to the early 1900s. Mr. H.C. Johnson, a fire inspector for the Board of Railway Commissioners of Canada, designed the first Canadian portable forestry fire pump in 1915.


How did the company’s invention in 1964 of the MARK-3 brand, a wildland portable “lightweight” fire pump, change the wildland firefighting industry?

The MARK-3, powered by the WATERAX 185cc engine, is known as the “heart of the suppression system.”


The MARK-3 has passed the USDA Forest Service 100 hours endurance test in San Dimas and has been re-qualified under QPL-5100-274 as of August 2015. It now is considered to be an integral piece of equipment used by wildland firefighters across North America and other countries around the world.