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

Subject: Science and tech

Sec: Msc

Context:

Indian Air Force’s MI 17 V5 helicopter was deployed on Saturday (April 27) to extinguish the raging forest fires in Nainital district, Uttarakhand, according to the state’s Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.

More on news:

The helicopter used a “Bambi Bucket”, also known as helicopter bucket or a heli bucket, to collect water from Bhimtal lake, located near Nainital, and pour it over the burning forests. Here is a look at what a Bambi Bucket is and how it was invented.
Forest officials said the IAF helicopter collected water from the Naini and Bhimtal lakes in a Bambi bucket and poured it over the burning forests of the Pines, Bhumiadhar, Jyolikot, Narayan Nagar, Bhawali, Ramgarh and Mukteshwar areas.

What is a Bambi Bucket?

Bambi Bucket is a specialized aerial firefighting tool which has been in use since the 1980s.
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.
Bambi Bucket is available in a variety of sizes and models, with capacities ranging from 270 liters to more than 9,840 liters.

How was the Bambi Bucket invented?

The Bambi Bucket was invented by Don Arney, a Canadian business, in 1982.
Arney came up with the idea after he realized that the aerial firefighting water buckets in use at the time were not efficient and had a high failure rate.
These water buckets were generally made of solid fiberglass, plastic, or canvas with metal frames and were too rigid to fit inside the aircraft and had to be trucked to fire sites or flown in on the hook of a helicopter thereby slowing the aircraft down.

Advantages of Bambi Bucket:

One, it can be stored within the helicopter until development.
Two, 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.