A forest fire raging out of control in central Taiwan that has destroyed 100 hectares of forest could be the worst such fire in eight years, the Taiwan Forestry Bureau (TFB) under the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday.
The fire, which has been burning around Lishan, Taichung County, for 50 hours, has injured six firefighters.
PHOTO: HUNG SHAO-CHIN, TAIPEI TIMES
Arid weather and strong winds have hampered the efforts of more than 1,104 firefighters and four helicopters
The fire is also threatening Formosan landlocked salmon, an endangered species, living in the Shei-Pa National Park's (雪霸國家公園) preservation zone.
The army and officials from the COA have been sent to the area to battle the fire, which started at around 11am on Saturday, according to COA officials.
The fire has burned particularly ferociously because of two types of oily plant, Pinus Tai-wanensis Hayata and Alnus Formosana Makino, that are common in the area, according to a special reaction committee set up by the Executive Yuan.
"The fire is wild. Since the mountain is so steep it takes us three hours to even get the location," said Council of Agriculture Chairman Fan Cheng-chung (范振宗), who was appointed by Premier Yu Shyi-kun to lead the firefighting efforts, at a press conference yesterday.
"It would be considered as a success if we can get the fire under control by tomorrow.
"But without rain, controlling the fire within 10 days is an impossible mission."
The army set up a headquarters at the Wuling Farm (
Forest firefighters of the TFB from Pingtung, Taitung and other cities and counties around Taiwan and firefighters from Taichung city and county have also joined the battle against the fire.
Another 279 firefighters from Taiwan's central and eastern counties will join them today, the National Fire Administration under the Ministry of the Interior said.
Fan said that he was particularly concerned about the safety of the salmon, which exist only in northeastern China, North and South Korea, Japan and this area of Taiwan.
According to the committee, firefighters have been cutting down trees around the preservation zone to reduce the chance of the fire reaching the endangered fish.
The Construction and Planning Administration, which is responsible for the Shei-pa National Park, said it would evacuate the roughly 400 fish if the fire moved closer to them.
The committee appealed to the public not to visit the area to avoid endangering themselves and obstructing the firefighters's work.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS