Bambi bucket

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A USMC CH-53 Super Stallion drops water from a Bambi Bucket during a training exercise.

The collapsible Bambi Bucket is an aerial firefighting tool, which is suspended below a helicopter, most often used in combating wildfires but can also be used for tasks such as decontamination. It is able to scoop up water quickly from sources such as ponds, streams, lakes, and many other local bodies of water as shallow as 30 cm (1 ft).

This photo, taken from a USN UH-3 Sea King, shows a Bambi bucket used to combat brush fires in California.

The bucket has a valve on the bottom which releases the water. The system can be modified to include fire retardant foam and the ability to pump water from the bucket into an internal tank. The Bambi Bucket was invented by Don Arney and has been in production since 1983 by SEI Industries.

There are 20 sizes available: 72 to 2,600 gallons (275 to 9,840 liters)

The device is also known as a Monsoon bucket, particularly in Australia and New Zealand.