Eighteen 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.

Related Links
Forest and Wild Fires - News, Science and Technology

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Chemicals firm charged over polluting French factory blaze
Paris (AFP) Feb 27, 2020
French prosecutors said Thursday they had charged a subsidiary of US chemicals firm Lubrizol over a massive fire at a factory in northern France last September that coated the city of Rouen in acrid smoke. Lubrizol France was charged with pollution and a failure to meet safety standards that resulted in "serious injury to health, security, or substantially degraded wildlife, flora, air, soil or water quality," the Paris prosecutor's office said in a statement. Headquartered in Ohio, Lubrizol is ... read more