Wild land fires are typically fought on a variety of fronts. These include 1) boots on the ground with hand tools and wildland engines, and 2) from the air. Air operations include winged aircraft dropping fire retardants or water, and helicopters dropping water. Helicopters carry large buckets suspended underneath and dip these buckets into a water source to refill. These sources can be a lake or river, or they can be portable container known as a “pumpkin” or dip tank. The pumpkins are usually orange and can contain 1500 gallons or more of water. They are typically refilled from a nearby hydrant. The helicopter hovers over the pumpkin, dips the bucket into the tank, and heads back to the fire with another load of water. EFRS owns a pumpkin and can deploy it during a wildland fire. In order to be ready, EFRS members participated Sunday April 22, 2013, in a practice dip site operation in Santa Fe County along with other volunteers from the County. The National Guard furnished the “bird”. Click these pictures to enlarge.
