CELM Staff Joins Partner Agencies for Prescribed Fire and Training

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It’s an amazing sight – a helicopter swoops low with a bucket dangling from a long line. On the ground, a wildfire crackles, running quickly through the grass. Suddenly, the bottom of the bucket splits, dumping 100 gallons of water directly onto the flames. The fire wavers, weakens, and then dies!

Helicopter pilots working with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and the City of Tampa are trained to use this technique to aid in the suppression of wildfires. Helicopter buckets (sometimes referred to as Bambi buckets) can be used to pick up, transport, and drop water onto an active wildfire. This helps slow down the fast-moving front of the fire when the fire is too big, or spreading too quickly, for firefighters on the ground to safely attack. The availability of this resource is incredibly valuable to Florida’s wildland firefighters, but using a 75 gallon to 115 gallon bucket dangling from a helicopter isn’t easy – it requires lots of practice with live fire. Pilots must learn exactly where to drop water for maximum effect. That’s where this yearly aerial training exercise comes in!




Annually, the Florida Forest Service works with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office to ensure pilots receive crucial aerial firefighting training. In the past the training has been held at Hillsborough County’s Balm Boyette Scrub Nature Preserve in Wimauma, but this year the Florida State Parks offered to assist. On January 12th and 13th, Alafia River State Park hosted a live-fire aerial training. Hillsborough County Conservation and Environmental Lands Management (CELM) was requested to help with the exercise and was able to send personnel, all terrain utility vehicles (UTVs), and two brush trucks. This benefited all of the agencies involved – the park was able to perform a needed 500-acre prescribed fire, and other agencies obtained hands-on fire suppression training. Working together during large-scale trainings like this one allows agencies to respond quickly and effectively when an actual wildfire breaks out, keeping citizens and firefighters safe!





The following agencies participated in the training:


City of Tampa Aviation Unit

FDEP Division of Recreation and Parks

Florida Forest Service

FL Division of Emergency Management

Hillsborough County Conservation and Environmental Lands Management Department

Hillsborough County Fire Rescue

Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office Aviation Unit

Polk County Fire Rescue

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