I work in Alberta, Canada with a company that often does Fire Fighting with Bambi Buckets. We own 3 EC 120's. They work just fine thankyou very much...although my FX 2 does put it to shame LOL.
Seriously, what's the debate all about. 27 hours to put a fire out vs ferry flight from Spain...get real. Hell the 27 hours was probably running time, AND not all bucketing. AND if it was, so what. Hell, how you found a "bambi" in Ireland I'll never know. I know for a fact the boys had fun doing it, and they'll talk about it for the rest of their careers.
By the way a properly outfitted, utility use 120 can lift 1000 lbs with a little under 40 % fuel at 1000/1500 ft or so, around 20 C. Probably a 96 US gal bucket, but if they were going for volume by the hour they could be as low as a 78 gal bucket.
Glad the boy's had some fun. That's my rant
BWB