Xinhua News Agency, Chengdu, April 2, Question: Rare "explosion" caused casualties, the fire has been effectively controlled - three days and three nights to restore the fire in Muli forest fire
Xinhua News Agency reporters Jiang Yi, Xiao Yonghang, Liu Kun
As of April 2, the Muli forest fire has been effectively controlled, and the local area is working hard to extinguish the remaining fire. In the front-line command office of Lier Village Committee, Yalongjiang Town, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan, the reporter interviewed some cadres and masses to restore the three days and three nights of fire fighting.
This is the scene of the Liangshan forest fire taken by aerial photos on April 2. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Kun
gathered at 4 a.m. The disaster was the order
At around 17:20 on March 30, thunderstorms occurred near Lamasigou, Yalongjiang Town, Muli County. The rain lasted for only 30 seconds, but the thunder continued. Wang Xin, deputy mayor and armed minister of Yalongjiang Town, who was leading a team to conduct forest fire prevention publicity and inspections in the town that day, also received reports from local villagers and cadres going to the countryside that six suspected cigarette points appeared near Lamasigou. Wang Xin immediately summoned a firefighting team, villagers and militia divided their troops to the scene to investigate.
Muli Mountain has a high road and a steep ditch. It took more than 5 hours to reach the cigarette point. Five of them have been eliminated or have been directly destroyed. At 23:50 on the 30th, a team of people climbed to the top of Lamagou Mountain and saw an open flame ignited on the top of Liercuntian Volcano. Wang Xin immediately organized the first batch of fire-fighting forces to rush to the top of the mountain and reported to his superiors. At 4 a.m. on the 31st, the fire fighting force in the Yalong River has gathered in Lier Village. Wu Song, commander of the front line command headquarters and county magistrate of Muli County, told reporters that the county reported the fire to its superiors at 18:28 on the 30th. After confirming the fire, nearly 600 people from 12 townships and Muli Forestry Enterprises set off overnight to start fighting. At the same time, the Muli Brigade and Xichang Brigade of the Forest Fire Brigade also rushed to Lier Village.
On April 1, at the temporary emergency rescue command of Qingshan Airport, Xichang, Sichuan, the rescue team was studying search and rescue plans. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Wang Yun)
Muli County, the county name means "the hometown of the forest". This Tibetan autonomous county with the word "mu" in its name is called the "eye of ecological protection" in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. The county has more than 13,000 square kilometers, with a forest coverage rate of 67.3%. The resources of live stands (meaning of living trees) account for 6% of Sichuan Province and 0.7% of the country. It is the county with the largest forest stock in the country.
Long Sheng, the captain of the Murakami Puzi team of Zhongpuzi who participated in the firefighting, said that local villagers rely on the mountains to eat, and everyone has the responsibility to protect the mountains. Whenever there is a danger, villagers will consciously follow their commands to participate in the firefighting.
Liangshan Prefecture Forest fire prevention pressure is also increasing day by day. In the past March alone, three fires occurred in Liangshan, including the Muli fire. There are about 20 fires in the state from the high-risk period from the end of March to the beginning of May every year.
Liang Shucheng, Secretary of the Liangshan Prefectural Party Committee, introduced that in addition to the professional forest defense forces, they have established local semi-professional "fire teams" throughout the prefecture, composed of villagers and militia, farming in daily life, and training in their spare time. Forest counties like Muli have set up "fire teams" in every township, and every village has fire team members to ensure that they can be dispatched anytime and anywhere in danger.
Rare "explosion" occurred, and "mushroom cloud" rose on the ridge
The most heartbreaking thing about this Muli fire was the death of 30 firefighters.
"It is certain that the rare 'explosion' is the most important reason for casualties in this fire." Xie Shien, full-time deputy commander of the Liangshan Prefecture Forest and Grassland Fire Prevention Command, said that first, the region has been continuously drought for half a year, with little rain and snow, and dry things; second, most of Muli are primitive forest areas, and the ground corrosity layer formed by long-term dead branches and leaves is thicker; third, because there is fire in the forest land, heat transfer will form along the corrosity layer. During the heating process, the corrosity layer will produce a large amount of combustible gases such as methane, acetylene, and ethylene. In addition, the action of the wind will form a heat wave, and an explosion will occur when the ignition point is a certain ignition point. "This situation is the most dangerous and extremely rare of all fires."
The first person to report to the command center that a "explosion" occurred was Wang Xin, the captain of the 17 firefighters who escaped from death."We met with the Xichang Brigade of Forest Fire and received an order from the command center to ask all firefighters to gather at the foot of the mountain on the 31st. Then I led 16 team members to choose a steep slope on the left side of the ridge to go down the mountain." Wang Xin said, "Because the Xichang Brigade carries a lot of equipment, he chose a relatively gentle slope on the right side of the ridge to go down the mountain. We watched them turn down the ridge, but we didn't expect that this would be a farewell forever."
At that time, Wang Xin and 16 team members moved down the mountain for half an hour, suddenly felt a gust of wind. Before he could react, the ridge exploded, and the fire wall suddenly rushed to the top, and the trees on the ridge were burned quickly. Everyone sat directly on the ground and walked down the ramp. A few seconds later, the place where he was just now had been engulfed by the sea of fire.
"I have been on fire for 18 years and have never seen this scene in my life." Team member Long Sheng is still very scared when he thinks about it now. "The stones are all burning, and I feel dead at that time."
Until the early morning of April 1, Wang Xin and his team members rushed back to the front-line command center in Lier Village, reported everything they saw, and provided key information for the command center's decision-making.
Wu Song introduced that on the afternoon of the 31st, the command center found that the fire burned down from the top of the mountain. At that time, the overall idea was to dispatch the power, assemble on the evening of the 31st, and put out the open flames in the early morning of April 1st. However, during the dispatching process, the firefighter encountered a "explosion" when he walked down from the top of the mountain.
31 at 21:00 on the 31st, the command center organized forest defense team members and villagers to go up the mountain to search, but it was no longer possible to cross the line of fire at that time. In the early morning of April 1, the command center organized forces to try every means to break through the blockade of fire. The first body was found at 8 o'clock that day and the last one was found at 17 o'clock.
The fire is effectively controlled. The people mourn the hero
On the morning of April 2, the Muli forest fire was still under intense treatment, and the temperature on site is about 10 degrees. The reporter saw at the scene that helicopters with large buckets of water roared past the top of the mountain from time to time. It is understood that on that day, five helicopters such as "M26" and "K32" participated in the fire extinguishing, and two of them were urgently mobilized by the Ministry of Emergency Management to reinforcements from Yunnan. It is reported that rainfall may occur from the 3rd to the 4th, and the meteorological department has also prepared artificial rainfall at any time.
On April 2, a rescue helicopter fetched water from the river near the fire site and prepared to extinguish the air fire. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Kun
At the foot of the mountain heading to the fire site, more than 40 fire-fighting villagers from Lini Village, Yalongjiang Town gathered early in the morning, and many people rode motorcycles and brought dry food. Villager Bian Malasi said that from the foot of the mountain to the fire, it takes more than 5 hours to walk from the foot of the mountain and live up to the fire. There is a shortage of water on the mountain, and the villagers mainly go up and cut out the fire barrier. In order to solve the problem of drinking water on the mountain, you have to use a pipe thinner than your little finger to dig water from a small river far away.
At around 12 noon, good news came out on the scene: the fire scene and the fire situation have been effectively controlled!
"The current overfire area is about 15 hectares, and about 600 people participated in the extinguishing of fire. Today, the wind is south, the wind is about level 4, the forest fire risk level is also level 4 to 5, the extinguishing conditions are medium, and the artificial rain increase operation is ready at any time. If the meteorological conditions do not change significantly, we should basically know this fire. However, in terms of residual fire, due to the complex geological conditions of the mountain type, we need to deal with it further." Wu Song said.
Starting from the early morning of the 1st, the front-line command center arranged to transport the bodies of the sacrificed hero back to Xichang. Wu Song said: "We started organizing firefighting teams from various townships on the afternoon of the 1st. Each 8 people transported the bodies down the mountain in groups. The bodies were transported to Xichang City one after another from late at night on the 1st."
This is the flowers and Hada presented to the sacrificed firefighters at the Xichang City Funeral Home (photo taken on April 2). The bodies of some of the victims were sent to the Xichang Funeral Home on April 2, and local people spontaneously went to the funeral home to mourn the dead firefighters. Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Chaoqun
The people of Xichang who received the news spontaneously went to the streets to mourn the dead fire-fighting heroes since the early morning of the 2nd. At the exit of the expressway, there are many citizens who welcome the heroes. Everyone stood silently on both sides of the road, mourning deeply, and shouting "Heroes are well on the way."
After the Muli fire, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council attached great importance to it, and the Ministry of Emergency Management and Sichuan Province launched emergency plans to organize forces to rush to the scene. The gathering of forces from all parties allowed the fire to be effectively dealt with. The reporter learned that Xichang will hold a memorial service for the sacrifice of the fire-fighting hero on the 4th. (Participate in the editorial and writing reporters Wu Guangyu and Ye Haoming)
