Deadly blaze caused by kid playing with matches
Source: Xinhua |
December 20, 2010, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A SIX-YEAR-OLD boy playing with matches started a grassland fire that killed 23 people earlier this month in Sichuan Province, local authorities said yesterday.
The mother of the boy was also killed in the blaze, which raged through the grassland in Daofu County, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze, Sichuan Province, on December 5, a provincial publicity official said.
The mother took her three sons to the grassland to fix the family's prayer flags - commonly placed on hilltops in a Tibetan Buddhist custom. One of the boys was playing with matches and lit a bunch of dried branches and cloth when his mother was not watching, the official said.
The blaze spread over the grassland quickly due to a strong wind. The mother tried but failed to put out the fire, he said.
The fire was put out a day later after 2,000 people joined efforts to put it out.
About two dozen soldiers and local residents were trapped when the wind turned during the initial stage of firefighting efforts. Twenty-two died at the scene and one critically injured person died in hospital on December 17.
Police say the child is too young to be prosecuted but no decision has been made as to whether action will be taken against his family.
Daofu sits at the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. It has a population of 45,000, about 89 percent of whom are ethnic Tibetans.
The mother of the boy was also killed in the blaze, which raged through the grassland in Daofu County, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze, Sichuan Province, on December 5, a provincial publicity official said.
The mother took her three sons to the grassland to fix the family's prayer flags - commonly placed on hilltops in a Tibetan Buddhist custom. One of the boys was playing with matches and lit a bunch of dried branches and cloth when his mother was not watching, the official said.
The blaze spread over the grassland quickly due to a strong wind. The mother tried but failed to put out the fire, he said.
The fire was put out a day later after 2,000 people joined efforts to put it out.
About two dozen soldiers and local residents were trapped when the wind turned during the initial stage of firefighting efforts. Twenty-two died at the scene and one critically injured person died in hospital on December 17.
Police say the child is too young to be prosecuted but no decision has been made as to whether action will be taken against his family.
Daofu sits at the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. It has a population of 45,000, about 89 percent of whom are ethnic Tibetans.
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