GoKunming Forums

Forest fire in the North

Ricklane (39 posts) • 0

Yunnan firefighting helicopters have been summoned to fight recent wildfire around Dali. Water bucket can often be seen suspended on cable under these orange helicopters, one of which dramatically crashed into Erhai Lake. Video of local fishermen boats at the crash scene searching for the pilots. Still no updates on this breaking news situation.

Ricklane (39 posts) • 0

Update:
Four crew members were on board. Two bodies were recovered, pronounced dead at scene of helicopter crash. RIP. Two are still missing, but likely perished as well. Speculation at this point, but cause of crash appears to be high strength of wind as helicopter bucket was drawing water from Erhai as chopper was hoovering over the lake.

From state portal news site:

"KUNMING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- A helicopter on Monday morning crashed into a lake in Dali City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, while clearing the destruction caused by a forest fire, local authorities have said.

The helicopter crashed into the Erhai Lake at 10:20 a.m as it attempted to draw water to clear and irrigate a burnt area, said the Dali municipal bureau of emergency management.

The fire broke out on Sunday in a forest in Dali and was extinguished by 6:40 a.m. on Monday. The crashed helicopter didn't join the firefighting efforts, sources with the publicity bureau of Dali told Xinhua.

Emergency and medical teams are carrying out rescue work on-site. It is not yet clear whether any casualties resulted from the crash.

An investigation into the crash is underway.

A total of 2,532 people were mobilized to extinguish the fire, which scorched some 48 hectares of land, according to the forest and grassland fire prevention and control headquarters in Dali. No casualties as a result of the fire have been reported. Enditem"
www.china.org.cn/[...]

veravdn (44 posts) • 0

There was a pretty strong southerly wind. I went to have a look at the fire, it's about 3km from my house. Very sad event, everyone is quite shaken by it here.

lemon lover (1006 posts) • +1

The header of this article is/was a bit confusing. For most of us being based in Kunming the "North" is an area of Kunming north of the Kunming North railway station. From the article and the description of Vera I understand that the fire is north of Dali.

Anyway the article is a reminder that we have to be careful about fire; not only does it destroy nature but has a cost in human lives as well, like in this case.

Related forum threads

Login to post