Air Corps Bambi Ops to fight fires

darkman2

Being used in Donegal and Mayo atm. A bizarre sight in Ireland.:)

FIRE CREWS ARE still working to control bog, forest and gorse fire that have broken out in parts of Donegal, Down, Galway and Mayo.
MEP Pat the Cope Gallagher said earlier today that the gorse fire in West Donegal is “completely out of control” and that some of the firefighters had been on the ground tackling the blaze for 24 hours.

Three Irish Defence Forces helicopters have been involved in an aerial assessment of the area after a request from the local authorities in Donegal. One helicopter is involved in dropping loads of water onto the flames, RTÉ reports, and 50 troops have been deployed to Donegal and north-west Mayo to help fight the fires.

A spokesperson for the Department of Defence confirmed to TheJournal.ie that an assessment was being carried out by the Air Corp and an engineer from the Defence Forces which will determine what assistance is needed.

....

thejournal.ie

Pics


http://www.flickr.com/photos/irishaircorps/5676606834/in/photostream/

BEASTERLY

Todays strong winds wont help. 139's on scene at 0445hrs according to the air corps facebook page.

stockyboie

DF could do with maybe purchasing a skycrane like this one used by the los angeles fire department. Good thing is can have a multi role purpose in heavy lifting also. Just looking at the 139's they can't carry too much water in those buckets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwkBVX1-uD0

punchdrunk

I'd say just pay the coastguard to do it!

S-61/S-92 would be perfect for this

Local-womanizer

The fires are crazy up here though,last year we had gorse fires out near Dunfanaghy that went for around 2 weeks.

hmmm

A nice video from the Donegal forum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfMp7k2-hGs

BrianD

I thought that there would be a natural role for the DF and Air Corps here but I didn't think that they would have the kit (as in the the water sacks).

Do they have much of this type of kit for the helicopter fleet?