TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Nineteen killed in massive China forest fire
Change Size
Firefighters battle a forest blaze in Xichang in China's southwestern Sichuan province early on Tuesday. Eighteen firefighters and one forestry guide died while fighting a huge forest fire in southwestern China, the local government said. (AFP/STR)
E
ighteen firefighters and one forestry guide died while fighting a huge forest fire in southwestern China, the local government said Tuesday.
State television footage showed large flames shooting into the sky from the mountains above the city of Xichang in Sichuan province, turning the sky orange.
Heavy clouds of smoke billowed above the buildings and roads of the city, which has a population of some 700,000 people.
The blaze started near Xichang in the southwestern province's mountainous Liangshan prefecture at 3:00 pm (0700 GMT) on Monday, "directly threatening the safety of Xichang city", the city government said in a Weibo statement on Tuesday morning.
More than 140 fire engines, four helicopters and nearly 900 firefighters have been sent to tackle the blaze, according to local officials.
In total over two thousand emergency workers are involved in rescue efforts to contain the blaze and more than 1,200 local people have been evacuated.
Helicopters were still battling the blaze Tuesday morning.
Several forest fires have broken out in the same prefecture in recent days, reported state news agency Xinhua.
Last April, twenty-seven firefighters were killed in a huge forest fire in Muli County in the same prefecture. Authorities deployed 700 firefighters to the scene.
