Chongqing: Several big wildfires that have spread amid continuing extreme hot weather and drought have been brought under control by firefighters in Chongqing. No casualties were reported.
The fires were scattered among forests in Jiangjin, Dazu, Tongliang and Banan districts in the southwestern municipality. On Sunday night, many residents in downtown Chongqing posted on social media that they could smell the heavy smoke even inside their apartments and spotted tiny burned embers on their balconies. It was believed the smoke and embers were from the wildfire in nearby Banan district, which broke out Sunday afternoon.
The local government mobilized some 5,000 emergency rescue workers and seven helicopters to extinguish the fires and evacuated nearly 1,500 people to safety shelters. According to the rescue team, because the wildfires had broken out on steep mountain slopes, it was very difficult to extinguish them, especially in Sunday’s windy conditions.
Chongqing Daily reported on Monday that the wildfires have been “successfully suppressed “and an investigation into the causes of the fires is going smoothly.
Known as one of China’s “three stoves” because of its high summer temperatures, Chongqing, a city with over 31 million people, has seen average summer high temperatures of 37 C.
The municipality has been scorched by its worst heat wave since 1961, when nationwide observation statistics began. Most parts of the city have experienced high temperatures of more than 40 C for several weeks, and temperatures soared to 45 C on Thursday. The ongoing heat wave is expected to continue into this week.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
