A helicopter and more than 1,000 people have been dispatched to help extinguish a forest fire that continues to rage in southwest China's Yunnan province, local authorities said Monday evening. A rescue team consisting of 1,075 military personnel and civilians was sent to the site of the blaze Monday evening, Xinhua quoted local authorities as saying. The fire, which broke out at 5:25 p.m. Sunday in Yimen county, defied overnight firefighting efforts and spread through the county's mountainous forests to Caopu township in Anning, a county-level city on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Kunming, said a spokesman from the provincial forest fire prevention headquarters. A helicopter and five excavators from the nearby city of Dali have been mobilized to help fight the fire. A severe drought has lingered in Yunnan for three consecutive years, causing water shortages for several million residents and creating fire risks. Yunnan is China's second most heavily-forested province, with a total forest coverage of 47 percent.
