Beijing, February 21 – Thousands of firefighters struggled Friday to contain a wind-whipped forest fire in Tibet that has been burning for more than two days, the Chinese government said.
The fire around Baiba, a town in southeastern Tibet’s Nyingchi region, broke out at about early Wednesday and was reportedly caused by villagers who were cooking in the dense forest after illegally chopping down trees for firewood, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
It quoted Zhao He, head of the 2,800-strong firefighting team and commissioner of Nyingchi Prefecture, as saying the fire was spreading from east to west.
“The mountains are high … and the woods are thick,” Zhao was quoted as saying. “Adding to these difficulties is the strong wind. It’s not an easy job to tame the fire.”
Residents and military officers stationed in the town have set up two firebreaks, Xinhua said without elaborating. It said the firefighting team was planning to enter the fire itself to extinguish open flames.
