You may have seen them there on the quiet waters of a lake near Port Alberni.
Two huge Martin Mars moored in the middle of the lake.
Their brilliant red and white paint jobs reflected in the glassy water.
Known as the gentle giants of Sprote Lake, they sometimes seem to float in the mist or
they disappear into the rain and fog, but all summer they are there.
Unless there's a forest fire, then they're busy, because fighting forest fires is what
the forest industry's flying tankers do, and they do it very well.
Working in tandem, the two Mars can deliver over 7,000 US gallons every seven minutes.
That's 30 tons of water per drop drenching a fire.
The water is scooped from a nearby lake or the ocean and flown to the fire where it
is dropped exactly where the fire boss needs it.
If he specifies foam, the concentrate will be added during the flight.
Foam clings to the trees and has a dramatic effect in reducing heat and smothering flames.
A typical drop covers four acres.
The water bombers are owned and operated by a company formed by an alliance of three large
forest companies with holdings on Vancouver Island and the adjacent mainland of British
Columbia.
Called Forest Industries Flying Tankers Limited, the company mission is to protect the forests
of the stakeholders.
The broader mandate is to fight forest fires whenever they are called upon to do so.
And the main weapons in the fight are the two water bombers, Philippine Mars and Hawaii
Mars, the largest operational flying boats ever built.
Originally owned by the US Navy, the Mars flew for many years as troop carriers.
They were brought to their new home and stripped to the bare essentials.
Water tanks were fitted and scoops added to pick up water as the aircraft skims the surface.
Later, tanks were added to carry foam concentrate which can be mixed with the water during the
flight to the drop site.
With a wingspan of 200 feet and four huge piston engines, the aircraft have an endurance
of six hours or longer if required.
With the Olympic Peninsula only 35 minutes away, it allows them to reach and effectively
fight fires south into the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State, as far inland as the
Okanagan Valley and north to the Queen Charlotte's.
Their piston engines give them the ability to fly low and slow, which is ideal for firefighting.
A large and essential part of the operation is the maintenance facilities attached to
the base.
The aircraft were purchased with a full inventory of spare parts.
Spare engines were purchased and are stored in sealed containers.
The design engineering drawings were also delivered with the aircraft.
Whenever possible, spare parts are purchased, but as the years go by, more of the replacements
are fabricated in the shops on base.
If needed, experts are brought in to consult and work on specialized components.
Training is ongoing for the highly skilled engineers who work on the craft.
They also fly in them as crew members.
Safety of aircraft and personnel is paramount.
Maintenance is a daily constant, which is true of any working aircraft.
There's always something to do in a job that is part engineering and part rebuilding.
Flying tankers also operates a fleet of helicopters.
They do mule work in the forest, lifting, hauling, seeding, fertilizing, transporting
personnel and materials to remote sites.
The most important work the helicopters do, though, is fire and she was doing things that
I normally teach 15, 16 year olds.
The size of her voice was just much larger than a normal nine and a half year old.
But you say the size of it.
You mean the tone of it, the range of it, what are they?
The tone of it and the range of it and the volume.
It was just a big voice coming out of a little person.
Yeah, very little person then, yes.
So what was your reaction?
It was sort of a my god.
Yes, it was.
It was a very big reaction.
My jaw hit the floor and it was like, oh my god, what have I got on my hands here?
But I knew that it was going to get rather amazing.
Let's have a little bit of rubato.
Yes, but once you've hit that, you can relax your rhythm a little bit here.
It's tempting to say that it was all uphill for Charlotte from there, but it wasn't.
To get her start, Charlotte not only had to be good, she had to be lucky.
And the break came on a British talent show in which she appeared not to promote herself,
but to introduce her aunt, then and now an undiscovered nightclub singer.
The researcher said to me, we want you to introduce your auntie onto the show.
So I said, yeah, fine, and you know, they knew I was a singer because my auntie told
them and that's why they wanted me to do it.
I know you have a great voice as well.
I've been told that you have a terrific voice.
Will you give us a little burst?
Of course.
He's got to get his C off the orchestra.
C off the orchestra, well, you can try, I haven't been hitting them this evening.
There you go, C.
And so the host of the show asked me to sing, I sang four lines of Pia Yazoo and I got a
record deal, my manager took me around to lots of different record companies and I got
a record deal.
Wow, what about that?
And that was it, you weren't supposed to appear on the show, your aunt was supposed to appear
on the show.
Yeah, well my auntie still was there, but I just sang a couple of bars of Pia Yazoo.
And then you signed this record deal and the first album was cut and it took off right
away?
Yeah, yes.
Carefully promoted by Sony Records, Charlotte's combination of youthful innocence and musical
maturity sells.
Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling you.
Especially when applied to a not particularly challenging repertoire of accessible classics
and Gaelic folk songs.
I was so nervous that nobody would buy it.
I thought I was going to sell about 2,000 copies and that would be it.
I sold 680.
Thousand?
Yeah, so.
Which is a lot more than 2,000.
Yeah, that's right, I'm much happier.
And not just here?
No, it's gone go old in America, I've now shipped 750,000 in America.
Charlotte is poised like most 13-year-olds on the cusp between childhood and womanhood.
You've just become a teenager.
Yes.
Actually, teenage girls are interested in what, clothes, make-up?
Oh God, I'm so interested in clothes.
Are you?
Love make-up.
Chanel freak.
Part of her is stuffed animals and frolicking with her little cousin.
Part of her is glamour and showbiz and the knowledge that her youth is at least partly
responsible for her success.
If I was like 18, I wouldn't be like nowhere near where I am at this time, it's just because
I'm 13 and there's been nowhere the children that have came out publicly and have been
able to sing classical.
Charlotte at 13 is the youngest singer ever to have topped the classical charts on both
sides of the Atlantic.
What's more, her first album, Voice of an Angel, was also a pop hit, going to number
four on the British charts and it broke into the U.S. top 30 as well.
Not even pop wunderkens like Stevie Wonder or Michael Jackson have done that.
With the young talent has come the fame and request to perform before other famous people,
the Queen, Prince Charles, President Clinton, the Pope.
Enough you'd think to seriously inflate a 13-year-old's head.
Not this one, according to her mother, Julia.
She's disciplined enough and well-balanced enough to know that with this business, it
doesn't always last, here today, gone tomorrow, so it hasn't gone to her head.
To be honest, her attitude is, underneath all the fame and the glamour, she is still
a normal child.
We're all normal people, the ones who get the fame and the fortune are incredibly lucky
and that's how she looks on it.
She's a very incredibly lucky young lady.
And of course, she's becoming a much richer one, or will be, when her growing trust fund
becomes hers.
What about the money?
Are you looking forward to the money?
No.
I'll probably mind when I'm 18, but at the moment, my parents provide for me, I get pocket
money.
How much pocket money?
About $70 a month, so that's kind of like the norm over here.
But presumably, one day, you're going to be rich when the money becomes yours.
I don't know.
I don't know how much I've earned, because all my money I've earned has gone in a trust
for me and it's staying there until I'm 22, so I've got a stockbroker, an accountant,
and all that kind of stuff, it's mad.
Call it madness, call it luck, call it talent, whatever, it works.
Charlotte's second album is due out this fall.
It'll pop up in a TV series this winter, touched by an angel, what else?
And in case any member of the audience out there might have somehow missed her act, look
for her at halftime at-