USFS officially commends helicopter pilot for extracting firefighter in water bucket

Remember the story — that at first sounded almost like fiction — about the firefighter that was rescued from an approaching wildfire by climbing into a helicopter’s water bucket and being extracted to safety? We first wrote about it HERE, and later HERE with additional facts.

We can now disclose the identity of the pilot, and even have a photo of the award given to him by the U.S. Forest Service. You can read about it on our new sister web site, Fire Aviation.

Yes, Fire Aviation is a brand new web site we started yesterday. Obviously from the name, it will be devoted to aviation used in the suppression and management of fires. You may have noticed that we often write about fire aviation, but now there is a special home for those articles. We will still occasionally include aviation articles on Wildfire Today, but most of them will be on the new site, Fire Aviation.

We are still in the process of building the site. More features will be added over the next several days.

You can follow Fire Aviation on Twitter. It’s @FireAviation

Author: Bill Gabbert

After working full time in wildland fire for 33 years, he continues to learn, and strives to be a Student of Fire. View all posts by Bill Gabbert