As 500 fan has already said, Forest Fires are relatively rare in Ireland. The Forest fire was extinguished fairly quickly, the hardest part for us was the peat (Bog) land, the fire had been burning for over a day before we got to it and the fire had burned into the ground. Just when you thought the fire was out, it would start up again 100 yards away, so we ended up covering the same ground over and over. When we had the fire out we spent alot of time just dampening down.
We did as Gordy said, Hover drop and fast trail drop, generally from 100ft or so depending on the smoke and flame height. We used 100 gallon Bambi, with very light fuel load and some times had to reduce bucket capacity depending on how much fuel we lifted to remain over head.
Again all credit has to go to the guys on the ground, they were the ones in the thick of it (smoke/flames) for up to five or six hours at a time, all we had to do was flick a switch, but i must say it was intense and i was absolutely wrecked, but i really enjoyed the couple of days and it beats the norm of flying straight lines, Horse tracks and golf courses..........
Fly Safe And Enjoy