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A boater helped fight a grass fire in the Valleyview area in Kamloops on Saturday afternoon.

Koyne Watson and Tasha Hunt, owners of Cobra Heavy Iron say they were out to test drive their boat when they saw black smoke on the Thompson River. She says her partner Koyne, who is usually safety-first, decided he had the right boat to get the job done and sprung into action.

“Coyne decided to make a pass with our jet boat because it has a big rooster tail on the back and he actually hit the bank with the jet stream and put out some of the flame” Hunt told CKNW.

Lorrie Jane Arnott said the she was relaxing on a powerboat in the river when she spotted smoke by East Shuswap Road.

She watched Watson approach the flames and “started whipping around with his boat.”

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The long, fast-moving watercraft started circling near the shore, creating large rooster tails in its wake that landed on the flames.

Once firefighters arrived, the boater stopped circling and went on his way.

The boater asked Arnott, “Did we get it?”

“You guys nailed it,” she told him.

“It could have spread but he nailed it a few times with the spray,” she said. “It definitely made a big difference.”

With files from Ben Dooley