Two burnt to death fighting wildfire

HARIPUR: Two villagers were burnt to death while fighting wildfire that erupted in the forest area of Gandiyan village some 32 km from here, police and local people said.

The police quoted the local people as saying that the fire erupted in the forest area of Gandiyan village on Friday evening and destroyed a vast area under forest forcing the villagers to launch rescue operation using the conventional methods. During the fire-fighting with indigenous method of using tree branches for beating the flames, two villagers identified as Ejaz Khan and Abdul Rasheed sustained burn injuries. The local people took them to the Haripur Trauma Centre but it was too late and they succumbed to the burn injuries. It may be added that since June 8 over two dozens of incidents of wildfire have been reported from different parts of the district where hundreds of acres of land under forest has been destroyed so far.