Report: 27 wildland firefighters killed in China

wildfire killed firefighters china
The deadly wildfire in southwestern China. New China photo.

Early reports are that at least 27 firefighters were killed while fighting a wildfire in China on March 31. The BBC said 30 firefighters died, while the China Xinhau News reported it was 27 firefighters and 3 civilians that perished.

(Update 9:15 a.m. MDT April 2: China’s state new agency Xinhua confirmed Tuesday that 27 firefighters and 3 locals lost their lives.)

From the BBC:

Thirty firefighters have died while tackling a huge forest fire in south-western China, officials say.

Fire crews had been battling the blaze in the mountains of Sichuan province on Sunday when a change in wind direction caused “a huge fireball”, trapping them, the emergency ministry said.

Contact with 30 firefighters was lost. All were confirmed dead on Monday and their bodies were retrieved from the mountain, state TV said.

China Xinhua News had different numbers — 30 killed but 27 of those were firefighters.

An earlier report had the number at 26 firefighters:

The New York Times was not specific about how the numbers broke down:

A forest fire in southwestern China turned deadly over the weekend when winds shifted unexpectedly, trapping firefighters and local officials in a maelstrom. The bodies of 30 people who could not escape were found on Monday, officials announced, even as the fire continued to burn out of control.

Among those who died were the chief of a regional forestry bureau in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province, and his deputy, state media reported. The officials had traveled to the scene of the fire, which broke out on Saturday in a remote location at altitudes nearing 13,000 feet, and had not been heard from since.

Our sincere condolences go out to the families, friends, and coworkers of the deceased.

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Paula. Typos or errors, report them HERE.

High-speed taxi test for China’s new amphibious air tanker

AG600 high-speed taxi test
AG600 high-speed taxi test. Xinhua.

China’s new AG600 amphibious air tanker recently completed a high-speed taxi test. The first flight for the aircraft was December 24, 2017 at Jinwan Civil Aviation Airport in Zhuhai, Guangdong.

The AG600 can carry up to 3,000 gallons of water, and like the CL-215/415 and Air Tractors it can scoop water from a lake and drop it on wildfires. When not fighting fires it holds 50 passengers in a military or civilian role, and has a range of 5,500 km (3,418 miles). It has four turboprop engines, can handle a wave height of two meters, and will have a maximum speed of 354 mph (570 kph, 308 knots).

First flight for China’s amphibious water-scooping aircraft

AG600 maiden flight

Above: screen grab from the BBC video showing (through dense smog) the AG600 taxiing after its first flight December 24, 2017.

China’s new amphibious aircraft that can scoop water and drop it on wildfires made its maiden flight December 24 at Jinwan Civil Aviation Airport in Zhuhai, Guangdong.

(Note: the original BBC video became no longer available. On March 15, 2021 it was replaced with the video below.)

The AG600 can carry up to 3,000 gallons of water, and like the CL-215/415 and Air Tractors it can scoop water from a lake and drop it on wildfires. When not fighting fires it can hold 50 passengers in a military or civilian role and has a range of 5,500 km (3,418 miles). It has four turboprop engines, can handle a wave height of two meters, and will have a maximum speed of 354 mph (570 kph, 308 knots).

In 2015  The Coulson Group, operator of the two huge Martin Mars water-scooping aircraft, trained 14 test pilots from China who were expected to be the first to fly the AG600 (also known as the TA-600). The training included ground, water taxi, flight, scooping, and dropping water. The pilots went through classroom and hands on training using Coulson’s Hawaii Martin Mars aircraft, actually taxiing and flying the huge flying boat.

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Micah.
Typos or errors, report them HERE.

Armed forest officers and soldiers in China work with Mi-26 helicopter


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A website in China has a photo story about “armed police forest officers and soldiers” working with the largest and most powerful helicopter to have gone into series production. The Russian-made Mi-26, according to Wikipedia, can carry 90 troops, 60 stretchers, or 44,000 pounds of cargo. But the site also has this:

On 19 August 2002, Chechen separatists hit an overloaded Mi-26 with a surface-to-air missile, causing it to crash-land in a minefield, killing 127 of the people on board.

Below is an excerpt from the article at the Chinese 81.cn website, very roughly translated by Google:

****

“May 26, in the hinterland of Daxinganling in Heilongjiang Province, the armed police officers and men are taking the opportunity to organize.

On May 26th, in the Baghdad area of ​​Heilongjiang Province , the Arsenic Daxinganling Forest Detachment and the Jiagedaqi Aviation Station jointly carried out the M-26 heavy-duty helicopter carrier heavy-duty remote transport. Patrol. Dragon Boat Festival approaching, forest tourists increased, the fire situation is grim, the resident armed police forces with the forestry sector to carry out the plane patrol, increase the fire inspection efforts to improve the rapid response to sudden forest fire and air transport heavy equipment capacity.

It is understood that the patrol ride M-26 heavy helicopter, is still the world’s most important service, the largest helicopter, known as the air “Big Mac”, the cabin load and outside the plug are called The world must be.

Aviation forest is the world’s more advanced means of forest protection, as the protection of Heilongjiang Province Daxinganling forest area of ​​professional armed forces, Daxinganling area forest detachment to actively explore the “helicopter + armed police force” way, air command, air patrol, cable (slip) Fire fighting, remote transport fire fighting and other tactics have been applied to the forest fire and fire, greatly improving the ability to carry out the task.”

****

All photos are from the 81.cn website.

Mi-26 helicopter firefighters Mi-26 helicopter firefighters

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Isaac.
Typos or errors, report them HERE.

Massive helicopter used in wildfire on Russia/China border

Click on the photos to see larger versions.

The automatic translation from Bing about the Russian-made Mi-26 helicopter:

Cross-border forest fires occurred in Russia, driven by China in Mongolia Autonomous daeheung an Ridge North. Join the Wu troops in Mongolia and Heilongjiang total fire fighting!

And Google’s auto-translation:

Forest fires occurred in Russia crossed the border and spread to the northern part of Daixing Anrill in China ‘s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Forest Takeshi Kaiuchi Mongolia · Heilongji Squadron participate in firefighting activities.