Firefighters continue to battle forest fire
Over 2,800 firefighters are still battling the forest fire in the southwest’s Sichuan province, local authorities said.
Three groups of firefighters are on the frontlines in the city of Xichang to fight the three major areas affected by the fires in the mountains.
As of yesterday morning, apart from one frontline zone with a 5km-long burning area, fires in the other areas have been basically contained, said Zhu Kang, an official with the city government.
The fire started on a local farm on Monday afternoon and quickly spread to nearby mountains due to strong winds, according to the government of Xichang.
On Tuesday, 19 people, including 18 firefighters and a local forest farmworker who led the way for the firefighters, died while battling the fire.
By 9am yesterday, a total of 24,467 people had been evacuated.
Officials said the blaze started on a farm before strong winds spread the flames to Lushan Mountain, turning it into an inferno that people in downtown Xichang could see and smell its smoke.
Flames on one side of Lushan
Mountain were put out at 1.25pm yesterday, according to the Xichang Forest Fire Joint Prevention Headquarters.
At 6am, 2,899 firefighters assembled around the mountain in Xichang, capital of the Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture in Sichuan province, to launch a general attack on the flames from four different sides.
The flames on one side of the mountain were successfully extinguished thanks to the painstaking efforts of 1,207 firefighters, according to the headquarters. — Xinhua/ China Daily/ANN