Bucket Work
This term describes work performed by helicopters in wildland firefighting - repeatedly dropping giant buckets of water or fire retardant from the air to douse flames, extinguish hot spots, or saturate fire breaks. Dip ponds near areas at high risk for wildfires become valuable strategic assets that allow rapid turnarounds to continually refill dip buckets. This proximity minimizes transit times to and from refilling points so that helicopters can maximize their time actively fighting fires.
Agile, professionally piloted helicopters can be fitted with tanks or buckets to deliver water and fire retardant to active fire lines. Large, heavy-lift helicopters can fill their water tanks with snorkels that rapidly pump water from natural and constructed fire ponds. Smaller helicopters carry water in buckets that hold between 100-400 gallons of water. Each bucket has a release valve on the bottom controlled by the helicopter crew. When the helicopter is in position, the crew releases the water to extinguish hot spots.
A prime consideration for designating a dip pond for bucket work with large Type I helicopters (which carry more than 700 gallons) and smaller Type II helicopters (300 to 700 gallons) is the approach and departure routes from the dip pond itself. Tall obstacles such as trees, buildings, and power lines close to the water make it much more difficult for the helicopter to descend safely. Once their buckets are filled, even the bigger helicopters have limited ability to lift heavy loads straight up. Thus, they must begin flying forward as quickly as possible to generate the lift needed to maximize their load capacities, necessitating a clear flight path.
Target turnaround times at dip ponds are typically under 60 seconds, allowing dozens of water drops per hour when the dip pond is nearby. Without time lost to commuting for fresh buckets of water, helicopters are highly efficient and can be game changers in the fight to prevail over wildfires.
In remote or mountainous terrain that may lack roads or natural water access, purpose-built dip ponds provide guaranteed water availability that otherwise would be difficult to obtain reliably. Sufficient water supplies enable impactful aerial attacks on wildfires in areas ground crews cannot easily reach.
An Invaluable Role
The effectiveness of dip ponds has become well recognized and highly valued, especially for dry regions west of the Mississippi, and states with wild, rugged federal lands becoming increasingly vulnerable to wildland fires. In many cases, states and local communities are responding by building and maintaining large series of ponds to ensure that reliable water sources are always nearby.
Munson Creek Fire, Alaska
In 2021, three helicopters working the Munson Creek Fire near Fairbanks, Alaska, were tasked with various support duties, from carrying firefighters, delivering supplies, and performing reconnaissance flights to assess the fire’s progress. Still, they spent most of their time on bucket work. In a single day, two helicopters made more than 110 water drops, totaling almost 33,000 gallons of water on hot spots identified by ground-based firefighters in two fire sections.
Georgia Bay Complex Fire, Georgia
In 2007, one of the worst fires in US history (at that time) consumed more than half a million acres before it was contained three months later. At that time, firefighting tactics focused on ground efforts by tractor plows, engine crews, and hand crews, with the aid of air operations. This fire highlighted the dangers inherent in ground operations during unpredictable wildfires when crews enveloped in dense smoke relied on honking horns to direct them to safety.
The Georgia Bay Complex Fire taught essential lessons about the need for more updated planning and wildfire protection strategies as they recognized that wildfires were changing. A drought in the Okefenokee Swamp had lowered water tables in the region, reducing water resources, but the involved areas were remote, and helicopters were forced to fly long distances to refill their buckets.
Having learned from the experience, the Georgia Forestry Commission reported in 2021 that 74 dip helicopter dip sites have been established and mapped, and are being maintained to support firefighting missions along the Okefenokee Swamp Perimeter.
Potlatch Deltic
Potlatch Deltic is a timberland real estate investment trust that owns nearly 2.2 million acres of timberlands across the US. In their 2022 ESG Report: Reducing Wildfire Risk, they focused on forestry management and firefighting challenges across their holdings. In Idaho, land ownership is typically a patchwork of discontinuous parcels owned by federal, state, and private entities. The difficulty in coordinating firefighting efforts between parcels of land that are inconsistently managed, as well as the low priority of timberland versus populated areas, necessitates the company employ corporate firefighting teams to protect its investment.
The company counts on aggressive initial attacks in Idaho timberlands when fires are still small. Initial attacks involve engaging at the fire perimeter first with helicopters, dropping water or retardant, followed by ground resources, and followed with a complete mop-up. When fires are considered too dangerous for a direct attack, strategies are employed to establish a fire line with heavy equipment and helicopter bucket work is employed.
Air operations at Potlatch Deltic draft water from any natural or man-made water body, including rivers, lakes, and ponds, but they’ve also invested in a series of over 275 constructed (and regularly maintained) dip ponds that place 95% of their Idaho timberlands within one mile of a usable water source.
