My company did firefighting in South Africa and a UN contract in Mozambique. The company fell apart due to a crooked South African partner and just as crooked Russian partners, got pretty ugly in the end but I never got shot so guess it was a win. Couple of others tried to make a go of it in South Africa after me but they also fell by the wayside and eventually the Civil Aviation pulled their certification. Not sure what that was all about. Sorry but no contacts anymore.
I did quite a bit of long lining and firefighting in them and their performance is hard to beat. Only helicopter better would be the Kamov in my opinion. I've also fire fought in a Blackhawk and the Mi out performs it.
And yes, the throttle worked the wrong way, had to think about that every time I opened or closed it, was a very hard habit to change.