What is a Bambi Bucket?

About Bambi Bucket

• It is also known as helicopter bucket or a helibucket.
• It is a specialised aerial firefighting tool which has been in use since the 1980s.
• It is suspended by cable under a chopper, and which can be filled by lowering into a river or pond before being flown above a fire and discharged aerially by opening a valve at the bottom of the bucket.
• It is essentially a lightweight collapsible container that releases water from underneath a helicopter to targeted areas. The water is released by using a pilot-controlled valve.
• One of its key features is that it can be quickly and easily filled. The bucket can be filled from various sources, including lakes and swimming pools, which allows firefighters to swiftly refill it and return to the target area.
• Features: It can be stored within the helicopter until development and it discharges a solid column of water, “resulting in a more accurate and effective water dump, less evaporation on the descent, and greater impact force.
• It is especially helpful in fighting wildfires that are difficult or impossible to reach from the ground.

Q1: What are Forest Fires/Wildfires?

It is an unplanned, uncontrolled & unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation.

Source: What is a Bambi Bucket, being used by an IAF helicopter to fight Nainital forest fires?