Thirty firefighters died after they were sent to tackle a forest blaze in remote mountains in southwest China’s Sichuan province at the weekend, authorities said Monday.
Nearly 700 firefighters were deployed to battle the fire, which broke out on Saturday on steep terrain at an altitude of around 4,000 metres (13,000 feet) in Muli County, the ministry of emergency management said.
Rescuers have found the bodies of 30 firefighters earlier listed as missing, the ministry said on its official twitter-like Weibo account.
Local authorities had lost contact with 30 firefighters Sunday afternoon after a sudden change in wind direction ignited a “huge fireball”, the ministry had said in an earlier statement.
Footage aired by state broadcaster CCTV showed plumes of smoke coming from the forested, mountainous region.
Source: Guardian Newspaper
