RAF crews cannot help tackle a spate of UK wildfires because of a lack of buckets used to drop water on the blazes from above, military insiders said.
Military sources have told The i Paper that penny-pinching in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) means the RAF has no usable “Bambi” buckets in the UK, needed to combat wildfires.
The buckets are suspended on a cable from a Chinook helicopter and are filled by scooping up to five tonnes from open water, which is then dropped in a controlled manner on the fires.
Shorts
RAF crews are trained to do this in order to fight wildfires in Cyprus, where the MoD is responsible for providing blue light services to all residents in its Sovereign Base areas.
