A report was received on a forest fire at the 38th forest compartment of the Dajia River working area in Taichung City at 5:00 pm on June 24, 2020. The fire raged for 49 hours and 132 people were mobilized to fight it. Finally, with full cooperation between the Forest District Offices of Dongshih, Nantou, and Luodong, as well as the Veterans Affairs Council, Shei-Pa National Park headquarters, and the National Airborne Service Corps, the fire was successfully brought under control this afternoon (6/26) at 6:00 pm. Roughly 3.7 hectares of land was estimated to have been burned. The forest type at the site of the fire is a mixed coniferous and broadleaved forest; with the easily flammable silvergrass and dense shrubs that grow there, the fire spread rapidly in the direction of the wind. The Dongshih Forest District Office immediately activated firefighting mechanisms and set up a front-line command post, and quickly dispatched forest rangers to form a firefighting team to carry out fire and rescue operations in the mountains. They overcame the dangerous terrain and continued to fight the fire, creating 1,100 meters of fire breaks on the east, west, and south sides of the fire to prevent the fire from spreading further. At the same time, Black Hawk helicopters improved fire-fighting efficacy by pouring water from midair for a total of 97 times. Land and air forces cooperated fully to protect the precious land and forest resources of Taiwan. Even though the mountains turned black and brown from the fire, there were some protected areas that remained unaffected. When seeing that the fire was under control, a forest ranger said: "No matter how much the effort, it was worth it". The Dongshih Forest District Office would like to remind the public to pay attention to fire prevention in the mountains. If a forest fire is discovered, report it to the firefighting unit or call the Forestry Bureau forest protection hotline at 0800-000930 immediately.
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