Huang Yuanlin was sitting in a bus. He pointed the camera lens of the mobile phone that was shaking with him, and then scanned the 20 teammates and guides in the same car-everyone was joking. The camera came back to his face again. He “naughtily” deliberately pushed up the mask on the fire helmet, put it down, and pushed it up again ... It was dark outside the car window, and the whistle was harsh.
Huang Yuanlin is a member of the professional fire-fighting team in the forest and grassland of Ningnan County, Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province. On the evening of March 30, this 15-second video was posted in his circle of friends with the text "On behalf of the people of Ningnan, let's go Sigh! Xichang, Xichang! "
This is the 34-year-old Huang Yuanlin's last stay in the circle of friends. In the early morning of March 31, on the way to the fire field in Xichang, the wind suddenly changed, and a group was surrounded by the fire. 18 fire fighters including Huang Yuanlin and a local guide were killed.
This fire-fighting team was established last year and was "transformed" by the village's militia. The youngest player is 25 years old and the oldest is 47 years old.
A year ago, on March 30, a mountain fire in Muli County, Liangshan Prefecture claimed the lives of 31 fire fighting heroes; a year later, the forest fire in Xichang City, Liangshan Prefecture killed another 19 fire fighting heroes. What did they experience? How can such a tragedy be prevented from happening again?
"To defend Sheshan is to defend Xichang"
At more than 4 pm on March 30, he lived in Luobu (a pseudonym) about two kilometers from the fire point in Chengnan Avenue, Xichang City. When he drove home, he saw an open fire on the mountain and the smoke was very dense. Later, as determined by the office of Xichang City Forest Fire Prevention Headquarters, the location of the fire was located in Daying Farm. Due to the strong wind, the wildfire quickly spread to Lushan.
"As soon as the car window was opened, the ash of trees and trees floated in. At that time, the whole city was already shrouded in smoke."
Rob looked down from home, but couldn't see the fire because of the obstruction. "I can only feel the smoke and wind," he said.
Rob's location is near the local 4A scenic spot-Erhai Lake and Scenic Area. There are two schools of Xichang Agricultural School and Xichang College on Sheshan, as well as many scenic hotels, farmhouses and other places.
Several live videos showed that the forest fire was approaching Xichang city at that time. The fire was soaring into the sky and heavy smoke drifted into the city with the wind. The news of "Laoshan is on fire" spread quickly through social media. Laoshan and Erhai Wetland Park were successively affected by the raging fire.
At 5 pm on the same day, the official WeChat public account of the Xichang Municipal Government reported that immediately after the fire broke out, Xichang City immediately launched an emergency response plan and organized more than 300 professional fire suppression teams and more than 700 emergency militiamen for disposal.
Due to the strong wind, the mountain fire quickly spread to Laoshan, which also endangered the schools there. That night, the local police issued a report saying that the mountain fire at the junction of Madao and Xiuchang City in Xichang City has not been extinguished. In order to ensure the safety of the lives and properties of nearby residents, please live in Xichang College South Campus to Haihe No. 1 and all citizens within 5 km of Madao LPG Station Obey the order and evacuate in an orderly manner.
Later, Xichang College issued a notice saying that the school immediately launched an emergency plan, and the South Campus has withdrawn 29 students and more than 500 faculty members and their families.
At the subsequent press conference, Li Jun, secretary of the Xichang Municipal Party Committee, stated that the fire situation in Laoshan was critical and different from ordinary forest fires. There were many important facilities around it, including a petroleum LPG storage and distribution station with a capacity of about 250 tons, two The gas station, four schools, and the state-level cultural relics protection unit Guangfu Temple and Xichang's largest department store, "the spread of the fire will definitely cause an incalculable secondary disaster. Scientific rescue is urgent, and defending Laoshan is defending Xichang."
Rescue teams have gradually increased. That night, 885 firefighters from all over Sichuan reinforced Liangshan. Among them, the neighboring fire-fighting team formed by Ningnan County for only three months was also ordered to go to the front line. As of 00:30 on March 31, the fire area was about 1,000 hectares, and the damage area was estimated to be about 80 hectares.
The Fire Fighting Team was "transformed" by the militia
After the fire broke out, Ningnan County Forest and Grassland Professional Lighter Team received an order to support Xichang City. The 21 members of the fire squadron gathered and took photos in the square in front of the South Silk Road building, the most eye-catching building in the county. Then they took a bus and rushed to the forest fire scene in Jingjiu Township, Xichang City, Sichuan Province.
This fire-fighting team was established last year and was "transformed" by the village's militia. The official website of Ningnan County Government has released news that the Ningnan County Forest and Grassland Fire Fighting Professional Fire Fighting Team will be stationed during the fire prevention period to implement paramilitary management.
The youngest player is 25 years old and the oldest is 47 years old. This is not a high-paying job, and it only works for six months a year during high-fire periods. Huang Yuanlin is one of them.
Huang Yuanlin has been a soldier before. He is 34 years old. He is a native of Ningnan. He has two children in his family. He is seven or eight years old and younger than one year old. Huang Yuanlin's family conditions are not good, he opened a "farmhouse" in the countryside, he was in charge of cooking, and his wife started. Friend Guo Zhong said that before that, whenever he had time, he often took care of business with a group of friends.
Guo Zhong said that Huang Yuanlin became a militia in the early years. In addition to "farming work", his circle of friends will also send out training-related content.
At the end of last year, the Ningnan Forest and Grassland Professional Fire Fighting Team was established, and Huang Yuanlin became one of them. Since then, the circle of friends has added "stacked tofu quilts" and "going up to the mountain". Between the time of driving a bus, Guo Zhong smiled when he saw these videos, and did not comment often.
"He is a responsible person." Guo Zhong thought.
On the evening of March 30, Guo Zhongran rushed to Kunming and saw a video taken by Huang Yuanlin in his circle of friends. He left a message: "Pay attention to safety."
Chen Shu (pseudonym) 33-year-old nephew Chen Zhanghua is also in the fire squad. At the end of last year, Chen Zhanghua told Chen Shu that she had recently "fire-fighted" and received a subsidy of 1500 yuan per month. There was an additional income of 200 yuan per day to go up a fire.
Chen Shu felt that the forest fire was dangerous and advised her nephew to consider it carefully. Chen Zhanghua returned to her: Not afraid, this is what I want to do. Chen Zhanghua once wanted to be a soldier, but because of his physical reasons and education level was too low, he failed to do so, which is more "regrettable". Chen Shu said that after becoming a firefighter, his nephew felt glorious, and importantly, he also made some money.
At 20:25 on March 30, boarding the bus to Xichang, Huang Yuanlin captured the scene of the departure: he was wearing an orange fire-fighting suit in the camera, his eyes were calm, and the other team members sat in their seats. Some are looking forward, others are lowering their heads. With the car whistle and talking, the atmosphere in the car is relaxed.
When posting this video in the WeChat circle of friends, Huang Yuanlin wrote: "On behalf of the people of Ningnan, let's go! Xichang, Xichang!"
At 20:58, Huang Yuanlin replied in the circle of friends: "Thank you for your concern, young man, you must come back safely."
At 21:41, he wrote, "It's Luoluo Mountain."
Luoyu Mountain is at the junction of Xichang City and Puge County in Liangshan Prefecture. It is about 2 hours away from the fire field on the north side of Sheshan.
Four hours later, Huang Yuanlin and 20 other teammates and a local guide were engulfed by a sudden fire.
Sudden change in wind direction, 19 killed
According to the announcement issued by Xichang, at 19:30 on March 30, this professional fire-fighting team received an order from the County Forestry and Grass Bureau, and at 20:20, a total of one shift and five shifts were on duty. 21 people, starting from Ningnan County, assisted Xichang Sheshan Fire Field.
At 22:40, the fire fighting team arrived at Caijiagou Reservoir, Jingjiu Township, Xichang City, where the fire was located. At 2310 hours, the team members, led by a local guide, went up the mountain from Caijiagou Reservoir to the assembly site for fire fighting operations.
At 1:30 on March 31, bad news came. The joint command received a report that the fire fighting team in Ningnan County lost contact on the way to the assembly point. At 7 o'clock, the search and rescue team found them.
At 1:20 on March 31, the team encountered a sudden change in wind direction, and the scene was very complicated. Three firefighters were injured, 18 firefighters were killed, and a local guide was buried in the flames.
According to official reports, of the 18 sacrificed firefighting team members of the Forestry and Grassland Bureau of Ningnan County, the minimum age is 25 and the maximum age is 47. The average age of the 18 fire fighters was 38.2 years, of which 3 were party members.
On March 31, Guo Zhong drove back to Ningnan, and went online during a break to see the news of the fire brigade's accident.
"Why is this happening?" Guo Zhong was a little panicked and quickly dialed Huang Yuanlin's voice. He didn't respond and called again, showing shutdown. Brush the circle of friends again, "both exploded."
"I just want to know if he's okay." Guo Zhong then inquired with his friends in the circle to make sure that Huang Yuanlin was "something wrong." At that moment, he felt "creepy," and then, "I couldn't stop feeling sad and sad."
Unexpected news came from nephew Chen Zhanghua, and Chen Shu burst into tears. She regretted that she had been busy doing business the previous night and didn't look at him. During the day, she didn't keep her soul. At night, she didn't fall asleep. She was confused in the middle of the night. She always felt that "the nephew came back from the fire".
Chen Shu turned to the surging news and watched the video of her squadron in her mobile phone when she was leaving, looking for her nephew. "I'm heartbroken." Chen Shu's tone was low.
On the afternoon of March 31, Ms. Hu, a citizen of Xichang City, told Peng Mei News that at about 13:00, on the way to the funeral parlour, she saw the convoy carrying the remains of the victims passing by. The person who saw the victim off.
"There are at least one or two hundred people at that intersection. Everyone knows this and comes to see them off spontaneously." Ms. Hu said that there were 29 vehicles in the fleet that transported the bodies of the victims, including 19 ambulances. Drive by police car.
The photos provided by Ms. Hu show that many people are holding flowers and red cloth strips with white corsages on their chests, standing on the side of the road waiting for the convoy to pass. Ms. Hu said that when the convoy passed, private cars along the road honked and the police saluted the convoy.
At the press conference held on the same day, the secretary of the Xichang Municipal Party Committee Li Jun introduced that Xichang City has established a special working group in accordance with the requirements of a victim and a service group, and transferred medical and psychological counseling personnel to form a service group to provide a full service Location services. Relevant units have initiated martyrs declaration procedures for 19 sacrificed fire fighting heroes.
Experts: Fight the fire, know how to wait
Yu Shuquan, a professor at Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, a director of the Forest Ecology Branch of the Chinese Forestry Society, and a director of the Forest Fire Prevention Professional Committee, introduced in an interview with the surging news that in addition to professional forest fire protection, most of the fire prevention teams responsible for forest fire suppression in the past belonged to non-governmental organizations. "Ordinary people", there are now professional or semi-professional fire-fighting teams in many places in our country. The team members have undergone strict training and have a certain understanding of forest fire fighting knowledge.
He told Peng Mei News that the current ranger team has some rangers who have become professional firefighters through training. Some of the forest police forces will choose to become professional firefighters after retirement. He believes that the overall rescue quality of the ranger team is Promotion.
Yu Shuquan said that in the course of fighting forest fires, there are often some unexpected situations, and sudden changes in wind direction are one of them.
He introduced that in the process of forest fires, the burning of combustible materials, including forest and grass, will increase the temperature of the air, and the air will rise to form convection after being heated. At the same time, after different types of forests are burned, The topography of the mountain will change accordingly, and these factors together will cause the wind direction to change.
Yu Shuquan told Peng Mei News that in the past there was also an increase in fires in forest and grass areas caused by changes in wind direction. Surging News learned that on December 5, 2010, a fire broke out in Daofu County, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan. When dealing with the remaining fire, a strong wind blew up, causing the fire to intensify, and finally 22 people were killed.
Yu Shuquan believes that the uncertainty and unpredictability of sudden changes in the wind direction of wildfires may lead to a large number of casualties.
He said that if a firefighter burns in the presence of an open flame, it is generally impossible for such a large number of casualties. "When the fire comes, you still have a chance to run, and there is a process of burning, which is uneven. There is a chance to escape." However, When the wind direction changes, the thick smoke formed during the burning of forest trees will be blown to firefighters. The smoke will quickly cover a large area, and there is almost no chance of escape. The breathing system of the rescue personnel inhales a large amount of thick smoke and causes suffocation. "Because of the thick smoke The resulting suffocation may cause casualties ... (the wind direction changes) may be difficult to avoid, and the wind direction change in the wild is likely to have no retreat, "he said.
Another expert in forest fire prevention also said in an interview with Surging News that forest fire extinguishing is highly professional, the fire environment is dangerous and rapidly changing, and rescuers are facing the test of life and death at all times, which is an internationally recognized high-risk and high-difficult industry. The dangers of each type of forest fire are very strong, but relatively speaking, dangerous fires, mountain fires, canopy fires, etc. are more dangerous.
He said that in fighting "dangerous fires", we must wait for the opportunity to let them go, avoid them, and at the same time set up fire prevention lines and establish safe refuge areas or evacuation routes. Chen Weiqi said that historical lessons show that more than 90% of the casualties at the fire site were caused by accidentally entering the aforementioned high-risk environment to extinguish fires and encountering "dangerous fires".
Reporter He Liquan Yi Hui Wang Xin Zhu Xuan Zhu Lei Wang Xuanhui