Hubei: First use of helicopters to fight forest fires

It is reported that as of 16:20 on the 21st, after nearly 24 hours of fighting, all open fires in the forest fire in Jiajiayuan Village, Honggang Town, Tongshan County, Xianning City had been extinguished. This is also the first time that Hubei Provincial Emergency Management Department has used helicopters to fight forest fires.

At 16:30 on August 20, Jiajiayuan Village caused a forest fire due to the villagers' returning to their hometown to pay homage to their ancestors. After receiving the fire, Xianning Municipal Party Committee, Xianning Municipal People's Government and Tongshan County Party Committee and County People's Government attached great importance to it, immediately organized rescue forces to rush to the scene of the mountain fire to put it out and report to the superior department.

After receiving the report, the provincial emergency management department started the emergency response. On the evening of August 20, the Department sent a working group to set out with the 80 member team of the Mobile Detachment of the Forest Fire Bureau stationed in Hubei, arrived at the scene at 2 a.m. on August 21, and organized scientific rescue of the fire site.

At noon on the 21st, the provincial emergency management office sent the person in charge of the command center, the fire prevention office, the rescue center and the communication support team to the scene to guide rescue and ensure communication transmission. At the same time, the provincial emergency management department, together with the provincial fire rescue team, dispatched 80 fire teams from Xianning and Huangshi to the fire scene for support. He also applied to the Emergency Management Department to call one AS-350 reconnaissance helicopter and one M26 large helicopter from the North Forest Protection Station of Hannan Airport to carry a large water bucket to the fire site for aerial fire fighting.

After fighting hard, all open fires in Tongshan County had been extinguished by 16:20 on the 21st. According to the preliminary investigation, the fire area is about 300 mu at present, and the forest scene of the fire site is all Bamao, causing no casualties and property losses.