More than 800 firemen, police, and local villagers are battling a fire that raged through a forest in mountainous Sichuan province in southwest China, local officials said Friday. The fire broke out at about 4:30 p.m. Friday in a forest near the city of Xichang in a remote prefecture with dominant ethnic Yi population, Xinhua quoted Liangshan prefecture publicity officials as saying. There is no immediate report of casualties. Strong winds, measured moving at five meters per second, fanned the fire through the forest and brought mounting challenges for the hundreds battling the fire, the officials said. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined. It is the second major forest fire reported in southwest China in the week. Fire fighters had on Friday just extinguished all visible flames in a mountain forest in southwest China's Yunnan province, some 5 kilometers away from the scenic tourist spot Yulong Snow Mountain. The fire engulfed at least 45 hectares of mountain forests amid high winds since Thursday morning. Nearly 3,000 people joined the fire-fighting efforts.
