The wildfire in the south of Sichuan province in southwest China has grown in size and some 3,400 people have been evacuated and moved to safer places.
According to Chinese media, the fire, which broke out on Friday in the remote area of Yajiang County in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, is still out of control.
So far, 3,396 people have been evacuated from neighboring villages, and communication with staff at the area’s hydroelectric power station has been cut off.
The Ministry of Disaster Management said strong winds caused the fire to spread to the mountainside on Saturday afternoon.
The ministry declared a level four emergency, and 1,260 firefighters from national and local departments were sent to the scene to fight the fires.
The teams were forced to halt work overnight due to poor visibility caused by strong gusts of wind, and the fire was still not under control. Earlier on Sunday, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported that four people had died in two separate forest fires in southern Yunnan province.
A forest fire broke out on Saturday near Douge, a town near Lincang, consuming about 5.33 hectares (13.17 acres) and killing three people, the news agency said.
Another person was killed in another forest fire near Wenshan, Yunnan, on Friday. Both fires have been extinguished.
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