Video: It doesn’t take long for a grass fire to turn into a raging inferno that sweeps through entire forests, so a pair of quick-thinking boaters in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, used their jet boat to create a massive rooster tail that helped douse the flames before firefighters arrived on scene.
GIF: Facebook
Tasha Hunt and Koyne Watson’s were taking their 1987 Eliminator Scorpion jet boat for a spin this weekend when they spotted the grass fire close to the coast of South Thompson River. Instead of using the engine to spin a propeller, jet boats suck up water to propel the craft at high speeds, often blasting a large trail of water out the back in the process, a phenomenon referred to as a rooster tail.
Lorrie Jane happened to be on a nearby craft when this heroic act of boating went down, capturing the whole thing on her smartphone and later posting it to Facebook.
After about eight loops, and roughly four or five direct hits with the boat’s rooster tail, Hunt and Watson were able to almost completely extinguish the flames before Kamloops Fire Rescue arrived on scene to finish the job. So the next time you’re relaxing on a lake and complaining about the roar of boats disturbing your tranquillity, just remember that one day they could save your cottage from a fiery death.