The air squadron of the North Rhine-Westphalian police presented its new extinguishing containers today (May 12, 2020). They are designed to help the fire department extinguish forest fires from the air. "The police and fire department are working hand in hand here with state-of-the-art equipment to protect human lives. With the new helicopter equipment, we are now the best-equipped police force in Germany in this area," said Minister Herbert Reul at the presentation of the so-called "Bambi Buckets".
The firefighting containers were purchased last year. These are containers that are attached to the outside of the helicopter and filled with water to extinguish fires from the air. The state invested 880,000 euros here, including training the pilots. The "Bambi Buckets" were used for the first time on April 20 at a forest fire near Gummersbach. "It was literally a baptism of fire and a complete success. Only the cooperation of the emergency services - the fire department as incident command and in ground firefighting, the police with helicopters, water cannons and to cordon off the area of operation, as well as the forestry administration with its expertise - meant that the forest fires ended well. This showed once again that such large-scale operations only work as a team and have a happy ending," said Reul.
The number of vegetation fires, i.e. fires in heathland, moorland, fields and forests, is almost twice as high in hot summers than in normal years. 2020 has also been warm and dry so far and may be the third exceptionally dry year in a row. Among other things, North Rhine-Westphalia has therefore planned an additional "forest fire module" for each of the 24 fire departments, purchased ten water delivery systems for around 11 million euros and 109 new fire engines for disaster control for around 35 million euros. In addition, ongoing training courses on the phenomenon are being held for fire departments and forestry administrations. "They are all aware of the climatic changes that we will have to respond to in the coming years. The 'Bambi Buckets' are a response to this challenge," says Reul.
The North Rhine-Westphalian police helicopter squadron (radio call sign Hummel) flies an average of around 2,000 missions per year throughout North Rhine-Westphalia and is stationed at Düsseldorf and Dortmund airports. Since 2017, the entire helicopter fleet has been replaced with six new Airbus H 145 aircraft at a cost of around 65 million euros. The crew of a helicopter consists of two pilots and an operator who operates the "Bambi Buckets" and instructs the pilots during firefighting missions.
