Helicopter Wildfire Water Buckets Goldwater Lake

Lower Goldwater Lake in Prescott, AZ was closed Saturday Aug 17 so helicopters could supply water to fight the Farm Fire & Skeleton Fire wildfires north of Phoenix. While hiking the Goldwater Lake Loop, we saw tens of helicopter drops. Per Wikipedia: these wildfire fighting tools are “specialized buckets suspended on a cable carried by a helicopter to deliver water for aerial firefighting. The design of the buckets allows the helicopter to hover over a water source—such as a lake, river, pond, or tank—and lower the bucket into the water to refill it. This allows the helicopter crew to operate the bucket in remote locations without the need to return to a permanent operating base, reducing the time between successive drops.”