Forest Fire Kills 18 Chinese Firefighters

March 31, 2020

The firefighters, as well as a local farm worker who had been leading them, had become trapped by a forest fire that broke out near Liangshan Yi Prefecture, in the Sichuan province Monday.

Source dpa, Hamburg, Germany

A forest fire killed 18 firefighters and a local farm worker near Liangshan Yi Prefecture, in the Sichuan province of southwest China on Monday.

BEJING—A forest fire in southwest China killed 18 firefighters and one other person, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported on Tuesday.

The firefighters and a local farm worker who was leading them were trapped by flames while extinguishing the fire when the wind suddenly changed.

The fire started on Monday near Liangshan Yi Prefecture, in the Sichuan province.

Sichuan previously suffered a serious accident after a forest fire about a year ago, when at least 27 firefighters and three others died in Muli, a Tibetan autonomous county.

———

Visit Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany) at www.dpa.de/English.82.0.html

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.