Indian Navy choppers with ‘Bambi Buckets’ waterbomb Morlem flames

Panaji: The Indian Navy’s choppers on Wednesday pulled out Bambi Buckets from their arsenal to send cascades of water down on fires raging in the Morlem forest for nearly 60 hours. Bambi Buckets (formally known as Large Area Aerial Liquid Dispersal Equipment) were used by two Westland Sea King 42C medium-lift helicopters.
The Indian Navy continued to assist the state government in firefighting, flying 26 sorties on Wednesday and dumping 17 tonnes of water on the wildfires.The Navy also sprayed water in Cortalim where a hillock has been on fire for over a day.
Based on the request of the state government, the Indian Air Force has also deployed a Mi-17 medium-lift helicopter from the Sulur Air Force Station for firefighting operations. The Mi-17 helicopter arrived at INS Hansa on Wednesday evening.
“Continuing the efforts towards helping the state administration to control the raging forest fires in Goa, the helicopters of the Indian Navy flew multiple missions on March 8 and sprayed approximately 17 tonnes of water at Cortalim and Morlem,” said the Indian Navy in an official statement.
The state government reached out to the Indian Navy on Monday seeking assistance to fight the blaze at the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary. A maritime reconnaissance Dornier 228 aircraft from the 310 Squadron flew over the wildfire on Monday for an aerial survey.
“The Dornier crews are familiar with reconnaissance missions and they passed on the exact coordinates of the fire. This information was given to the forest department,” said a senior naval officer. “Meanwhile, specialised firefighting equipment was flown in from naval units in Kochi and Mumbai on Tuesday.”
While the firefighting equipment has been brought in from Kochi, the multi-role Sea King 42C helicopters have come from INS Shikra, Mumbai, and INS Dega, Visakhapatnam. The Sea King helicopters flew three missions on Tuesday.
“Multiple sorties over Morlem were undertaken by Sea King aircraft of the Indian Navy in heavy turbulence inside a steep valley. Fire was systematically contained to a large extent jointly with forest department and locals,” the Navy statement said.
The Navy is functioning in coordination with the forest department and it has placed firefighting equipment on standby to help the state government on the ground if required.
Forest minister Vishwajit Rane and Flag Officer Commanding Goa Area (FOGA) Rear Admiral Vikram Menon undertook an aerial survey on Wednesday. “The survey was required to assess the fire and the damage. Once you get a bird’s eye view, you get a better idea of the challenges involved,” said a source.
This is the second time in less than a week that the Indian Navy has been asked to assist in firefighting operations. A few days ago, naval choppers were used to fight a blaze at Kochi’s Brahmapuram waste treatment plant in Kerala.
“The forest department is telling us which areas to tackle. The three helicopters will resume firefighting runs at first light on Thursday,” the officer added.