Air Corps helicopter fire fighting

[Jetjock]

Reality check. There has never been a fire in Ireland that would have required a fixed wing water bomber to bring it under control. We do not have vast areas of forested wilderness where such fires thrive. Nor is it as simple as buying the equipment to add the capability. It is a highly specialised skill requiring huge amounts of training and experience, specialised ground crew and spotters. It would quite simply fail any cost-benefit analysis.

[GoneToTheCanner]

I beg to differ. Having passed through the remains of a particularly large fire in Wicklow, which destroyed large sections of both commercial and native forest, a water bomber would have been very handy. For some reason, bambi buckets were only available later in the event's life and it was allowed to burn. The local fire brigade were essentially only able to tidy up afterwards because of the sheer scale of the thing and a further result was a landslide when it rained, as the burning of the ground layer had "unknit" the soil so it shifted when the rain took hold. While I agree that we don't need to have a CL 215 on permanent standby, it'd be nice to be able to have x amount of bambi buckets and the helicopters available. Dont forget that civvy helis did the bulk of bambi bucket work before the AC took it on.

[pilatus]

So we are offering an aircraft we don't have, with a system we don't need to our friends with bigger budgets?

My suggestion was hypothetical like most on this forum and regards a system we don't need, well that's your opinion. It would have been most welcomed earlier this year by all involved i'd imagine:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/firefighters-battle-to-keep-forest-fire-away-from-kildare-explosives-factory-1.4266797%3fmode=amp

[na grohmiti]

My suggestion was hypothetical like most on this forum and regards a system we don't need, well that's your opinion. It would have been most welcomed earlier this year by all involved i'd imagine:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.iri...797%3fmode=amp

I guess we'll never know, now that the Irish explosives factory was destroyed by fire.

Or it may have been a sensationalist news article.

[DeV]

Coillte have a tender out for Heli work (not just firefighting):

• Provision of a minimum of 2 Helicopters with “Bambi buckets” and associated lifting equipment, on an ad hoc basis, ready and available for firefighting during the fire season.
• One of the Helicopters must have the capacity to lift a 1000 litre capacity Bambi Bucket which has variable flow and controlled from the Helicopter.
• The second helicopter must have the capacity to lift a minimum of a 400 litre capacity Bambi Bucket which is controlled from the Helicopter.


Response Time for fire call out
When the helicopter is called out to a fire, the helicopter is required to be on any site on the Coillte estate at the fire within two hours. This is not a call out from a Standby situation. This will be monitored during the course of the work.

[ias]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-65905415

I see an AC AW139 is in County Antrim today fighting a major gorse fire.

[na grohmiti]

We need more helis, now that the AAC and the RAF helis have departed the 6 counties.

[DeV]

We need more helis, now that the AAC and the RAF helis have departed the 6 counties.

Need them anyway

[DeV]

https://indd.adobe.com/view/31e02e4e-fe13-4f6e-a6f4-8feb11ef9514

interesting article from page 28 by Declan Daly on AC forest fire fighting