IBAMA (Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable
Natural Resources) conducts a large and comprehensive
annual Forest Firefighting Training program held in Brazil’s
capital city of Brasilia at the National Park and includes both
theory and practical elements. This year’s training program
introduced SEI’s SLING DRAGON, an important device for the
integrated management of controlled burns. The SLING
DRAGON went through extensive testing and received
Technical Release in time to train IBAMA pilots with the new
aerial ignition equipment. IBAMA’s three SLING DRAGON
units are the first to be used in South America.

SEI Industries developed the SLING DRAGON to increase
safety and performance by removing the machine from
inside the aircraft and slinging it from the helicopter cargo
hook with a set of SS suspension cables. Safely operated by
the pilot with a hand control switch, the ignition occurs
outside the aircraft and separate from the helicopter flight
deck eliminating the need of a crew operator. With a much increased
capacity of 5,000 spheres and seven speed
setting, the SLING DRAGON is equipped with a GPS tracker
that records the drops coordinates on a MicroSD card,
allowing users to easily view a map of their burn area.

“The Sling Dragon will exponentially increase our prescribed
burning capability, which is a fundamental element of
IBAMA’s preventative program to reduce the severity of
wildland fires – specially in large, protected areas such as
indigenous and conservation lands. The addition of the Sling
Dragon to our toolbox will bring more efficiency and safety
to the aerial ignition operations allowing quick access to
unreachable and risky areas for the ground crews,” explains
Everton Almada Pimentel, Environment Analyst – Aerial
Operations, IBAMA.

The Annual Forest Firefighting Training program (a
weeklong event, repeated twice during the month of July)
is coordinated by Prevfogo (The National Center for the
Prevention and Combat of Forest Fires), a division of
IBAMA responsible for policy, prevention and fighting forest
fires in Brazil, and COAER, the Institute’s Air Operations
Coordination. COAER’s training strategy included
instruction for ground operations, controlled burns as well
as Bambi Bucket training. Brazil’s most experienced aerial
firefighting operator, HELISUL Taxi Aereo, provides pilots
with the opportunity to repeatedly fill the Bambi Buckets at
different water sources and extinguish fires set by ground
and aerial crews on designated grass fields.

“Every year IBAMA performs multiple operations in Brazil to
fight and prevent forest fires. Due to the aircraft multi
mission’s requirement the Bambi Bucket is the ideal
firefighting tool. It is flexible, light, and easy to install and
remove from the helicopter, providing flexibility for the pilot
to support other operations and quickly return to fire
fighting without shutting the engines down.” comments
Commander Robinson Bordin, Director of Operations,
HELISUL.

About SEI Industries
SEI Industries Ltd designs and manufactures innovation
solutions using unique industrial fabric and is best know for its
invention of the world-famous Bambi Bucket. With an emphasis
on customer-driven features such as collapsibility,
transportability and quick set-up, SEI Industries offers a wide
range of products for a variety of applications related to liquid
containment and handling. For more information, please visit
www.sei-ind.com