Wiktionary
n. 1 A primitive firefighting technique, in which a long line of people pass buckets of water hand-to-hand from the nearest water source to the site of a fire, in an attempt to douse it. 2 By extension, any process in which something is passed along a chain.
Wikipedia
A bucket brigade or human chain is a method for transporting items where items are passed from one stationary person to the next. The method was important in firefighting before the advent of hand pumped fire engines, whereby firefighters would pass buckets to each other to extinguish a blaze. A famous example of this is the Union Fire Company. This technique is still common where using machines to move water, supplies, or other items would be impractical.
This method needs a number of participants sufficient for covering the distance.
Usage examples of "bucket brigade".
He handed her to waiting friends, then turned to direct the bucket brigade to douse a flaming chunk of shingles that had dropped into the street.
The keg, with the top hacked off, was substituted for the missing soup kettle in the bucket brigade, the fires were put out, and the incongruity was repaired.
The bucket brigade took over, and the fire was extinguished and the stove cooled in just a few minutes.
In the brief space between organising the bucket brigade, and the Indians' attack on the north-east angle, he had been sending down every other savanero and teamster to put to the mule teams on the three coaches, and on a couple of the wagons in the little park behind the shops on the southern side.
With the bucket brigade operating at full speed, the fire seemed to be held in check.
Within a short expanse of time, a bucket brigade had begun, with tar-filled pails coming up the ropes and empty buckets moving back down for refilling.
WITHIN A SHORT EXPANSE OF TIME, A BUCKET BRIGADE HAD BEGUN, WITH TAR-FILLED PAILS COMING UP THE ROPES AND EMPTY BUCKETS MOVING BACK DOWN FOR REFILLING.
A gentleman of the old school is prepared for any emergency, however, and Master Li swiftly joined forces with the fierce old fellow with the medals to recruit a bucket brigade to dump cleansing water over the stones.
Blessing and Arosa have rounded up over a hundred Blacklist so far (our honey-bucket brigade).
Then Mike jumped off the boat up onto the wharf and bellowed at the top of his voice, so loud that they heard him clear inside the fort, so loud that the bucket brigade stopped long enough to listen.
Some pulled the wounded back while others lined up to form a bucket brigade to put out the burning remains of the inns.
After we formed a bucket brigade and put out the fire, you could still smell the kerosene that somebody had splashed around.
No one paid them any mindthey were all too busy ogling the fire and the bucket brigade or craning their necks to see if the fire brigade had gotten to the burning inn yet.