SATV, May 07,Kathmandu: Currently, wildfires has been noticed in 52 districts and more than 500 places in the country, 50 people have died, more than 140 people have been injured, more than 1000 houses have been completely destroyed.
Simrik Airlines has been providing Ariel firefighting services with BAMBI BUCKET, a specialised bucket hanging on a line carried by a helicopter to provide water for aerial firefighting.
The Airlines has been providing its services around the nation since 2020 AD with the resource of a single Helicopter. The lifesaving Bambi Bucket of 1000 Ltr water holding capacity is used for their heroic action to bring into success.
Simrik Airlines is not only the single airlines which possess this lifesaving Bambi Bucket but also a very single institute that has been conducting Aerial Firefighting in Nepal. Not even the government of Nepal has come into the battle field of fire through Aerial Firefighting Services yet.
According to General Manager, Mr. Muralidhar Joshi, the airlines has been objected to social services by protecting public as well as property from the vicious fire caught at different places.
The simrik Airlines had trained personnels since 2016 for aerial firefighting and successfully initiated it's journey by conducting its first mission through controlling and extinguishing the fire of Pathibhara at 2020 AD.
SimriK Air manager Muralidhar Joshi informed the press yesterday that “in current context, even though Simrik Airlines received information about the fire through various informal means, it was felt that there were still some inadequacies to efficiently and effectively control the fire due to the lack of adequate information such as the location of the fire, the description of the nearby lake or water source and proper instructions”.
Mr. Joshi expresses his confidence and tries to gather collective help from any resource possible during fire by saying that, “ the control will be effective and safe if the following people are coordinated and contacted during the fire control and we request them to transmit the information accordingly:
✓ How likely is fire to spread and reach the villages and settlements, evaluate and report all information related to the fire to the nearest local authority, district police office and district disaster management office
✓ If the fire is likely to reach the villages and settlements, and there is a possibility of causing a disaster, the district disaster management office or the local body will call the helicopter company.
✓ Properly confirm the mid-longitude coordinates of the fire when reporting to the helicopter company and provide those coordinates to the helicopter company, and also determine the water coordinates of the nearby Lake or River and inform the helicopter company with the same coordinates, and one person will be in constant contact by taking care of the position of the focal part and necessary Providing documents
✓If the lake and river is near, if it is at a distance of around 15-20 km, it is possible to control the fire with a helicopter, if it is outside that, other alternative resources should be gathered”.
What is a Bambi bucket?
Bambi buckets are used to pour water from above on the fire place by hanging the bucket from a rope on the helicopter. This method is imported from Japan.
In this method, water is filled by dipping the bucket in water from a nearby lake or river through a Bambi bucket. It is attached to the helicopter through a bucket, line or rope. The opening of the bucket for pouring water is done by the pilot inside the helicopter. Fire control is effective if 1000 liters of water is thrown from a height in the fire-affected area. This method has been safe and effective all over the world.
Guests giving their speeches about their experiences inside and outside the nation, trainings, saftey, equipments and lastly providing suggestions for the reformations in aerial firefighting in our naiton:
Retired Journalist of Gorkhapatra, Bhim Kharel providing his experiences about firefightings experienced by Nepal and the help media can be for lesser losses during wildfires. Photo: Bishal Shrestha, SATV
Internationally trained fire control expert, Kishor Bhattarai presenting a working paper in the program about the advanced equipment Nepal can afford and how does it help. Photo: Bishal Shrestha, SATV
According to Executive Director Gurung, recent examples have also shown that helicopter fire control is useful from a security point of view, even though it is expensive.
