Deadly forest fire put out in SW China

0 CommentsPrint E-mail Xinhua, March 5, 2011
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The deadly forest fire, which killed nine fire-fighters in southwest China's Yunnan Province, had been extinguished completely by Saturday morning, said a local fire control official.

The naked flames on the Jianchuan Mountain in Yunnan's Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture had been put out on Friday evening, and 1,140 fire-fighters continued to extinguish the scattered sparks to prevent winds from reigniting the fire, said Wan Yong, deputy commander of Yunnan Provincial Forest Fire Prevention Authority.

Some fire-fighters were still keeping a close eye on the site in case of more fires, Wan said.

Local authorities said winds reignited a fire that was smoldering Thursday on the mountain, trapping some fire-fighters, nine of which were killed later and seven others were injured.

They said the fire was accidentally started Wednesday by a woman living in the nearby Jinchang village, who burnt corn stalks on a piece of uncultivated land surrounded by weeds.

She failed to contain the fire, which was later building up amid high winds.

The provincial forest public security bureau detained Li on Thursday.

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