Wildfire rages in southwest China as strong winds and poor visibility disrupt firefighting efforts

Chinese authorities have sent over 1,000 firefighters and seven helicopters since Friday to battle a raging forest fire in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

The fire started around 5pm on Friday near Baizi village in Yajiang county of Sichuan’s Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Garze, according to an update on the Ministry of Emergency Management’s official website.

Strong winds on Saturday afternoon caused the fire to quickly spread over multiple mountain ridges, it added.

The ministry declared a level-4 emergency response, the lowest alert for fire control in forests and grasslands, and dispatched 1,260 firefighters from national and local fire rescue squads.

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According to state-run broadcaster CCTV, the firefighters were withdrawn on Saturday night due to strong winds and poor visibility. They will resume their efforts after the joint command headquarters surveys the scene and issues a new firefighting plan on Sunday.

There have been no reports of casualties so far, local authorities said.

A resident of provincial capital Chengdu, located 500km (311 miles) from the site, said the wildfires turned the sky orange on Saturday.

“The sky suddenly turned frighteningly orange in Chengdu. It felt like an apocalyptic disaster movie,” said the city resident, who was only willing to be identified by his surname Wang.

“At first, I thought it was a rare sandstorm from the north before I watched TV news about the huge wildfire in Yajiang County,” Wang said on Sunday.

The forest fire in Yajiang county, Sichuan province has spread quickly over several mountain ridges because of strong winds. Photo: Xinhua

Official news agency Xinhua reported that a photovoltaic power station in the region had not been affected, but communication with a hydroelectric station had been interrupted.

A section of a highway that passes through the region has been temporarily closed.

From February 10 to 21, a string of 221 forest fires, including 11 large mountain fires that claimed two lives, blazed across parts of neighbouring Guizhou province.

A total of 15,000 local people joined 9,200 firefighters to combat the Guizhou fires, according to local authorities.

Guizhou police detained 10 people for illegal use of fire in mountainous areas, which sparked wildfires that killed two firefighters.

South China Morning Post