After battling a long crisis of pandemic COVID-19, China has again exposed to another local disaster when 18 firefighters and a local forest guide have lost their lives while battling forest fire in the Sichuan province.

The fire has spread over 1000 hectares of forest lands. More than 2000 firefighters and responders are at the ground zero to tackle the blaze.

As per the Chinese news agency Xinhua, over 2000 people have been evacuated from the locality.

The fire is reported to have started from local farm that quickly spread to the nearby forest as a result of the strong wind in the area.

Fire that initiated in a small area of 15 hectares has now spread to over 1000 hectares as per BBC report. Due to sudden change in the wind direction, all the 19 firemen were exposed to huge blaze and lost lives.