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Fire engines stymied by narrow streets as ancient town razed
Print Edition
A FIRE that raged for nearly 10 hours yesterday razed an ancient town in southwest China’s Yunnan Province that’s popular with tourists, burning down hundreds of buildings as fire engines were unable to get onto the narrow streets.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, and the cause was unclear. Xinhua news agency said the blaze started in a guesthouse and was ruled accidental.
The fire broke out at 1:37am in the Tibetan quarter of Dukezong, which dates back 1,300 years and is known for its cobbled streets, ancient structures and Tibetan culture. Dukezong means a “town of the moon” in Tibetan.
It is part of scenic Shangri-La County in Deqen prefecture. Once called Gyaitang Zong, the county in 2001 renamed itself Shangri-La, hoping to attract tourists through the association with the mythical Himalayan land of James Hilton’s 1933 novel.
Shangri-La renovated its old neighborhood, Dukezong, turning it into a tourist attraction. But photographs and video footage from yesterday showed Dukezong engulfed in flames turning the night sky red.
The fire destroyed about 240 houses and shops and many historic artifacts, forcing some 2,600 people to flee their homes, Xinhua reported.
Resident He Yu said she awoke to loud, explosion-like sounds to find the old town on fire.
“The fire was huge,” she said. “The wind was blowing hard, and the air was dry. Firefighters were there, but there was little they could do because they could not get their fire engines into the old town’s narrow streets.”
Locals used buckets of water to fight the flames, the Deqen prefecture government said.
Most of the buildings were made of wood and the fire spread easily because of dry weather, China Central Television said.
More than 2,000 firefighters, soldiers, police, local officials and volunteers brought the blaze under control around 11am, the county government said.
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