Kathmandu - At least 13 Nepalese soldiers were killed
Thursday trying to put out a forest fire in central Nepal, officials
said.
The soldiers were killed when the forest fire in Ramechaap
district, about 100 kilometres east of Kathmandu, changed course,
cutting off the soldiers' escape route, the district police office
said.
The soldiers who died were part of a 130-member team deployed to
put out the massive blaze in a pine forest in the Srikandanda hills
close to the town of Ramechaap Bazar.
Police said the fire raged out of control and was threatening a
hospital in the town when the soldiers were deployed.
'The rescue teams have recovered the bodies of 13 soldiers who
died in the accident,' chief government administrator Jitendra
Bahadur Bhandari said.
'At least two other soldiers could be missing, but we will know
other details only after all soldiers return to barracks and are
accounted for,' Bhandari said.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known, but officials
said they suspected the fire was started by a cigarette thrown by
people venturing into the forest.
There was also the possibility that the fire could have started
from a market organized in the town close to the forest every
Thursday, Bhandari said.
Forest fires are common in Nepal during April and early May.
However, they have been particularly bad this year because of nearly
five months in which much of the country did not receive any rain.
The country's meteorological department in its report said many
parts of the country had received less than half the normal rainfall
in March after five months of drought-like conditions.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story