Firefighters in central Taiwan’s Taichung City are working overtime. Within two short weeks, people called upon the fire department 231 times to extinguish fires at public cemeteries. The culprit? Traditions like burning joss paper and incense during Taiwan’s Tomb-sweeping Festival.
A wall of fire blazes through the outskirts of a public cemetery in central Taiwan’s Taichung City. Out here, firefighters must brave blinding smoke and intense heat. Their only option is to put on masks and push through the inferno with hoses and extinguishers.
For firefighters, this is no run-of-the-mill job. Out here, there are no fire hydrants, so personnel can only rely on the limited water supply brought in by fire trucks. Even worse is that a simple gust of wind can expand the fire, complicating the already dire situation.
It's the tomb-sweeping season in Taiwan, which means people are burning incense and joss paper at outdoor cemeteries to honor their ancestors. However, these combustible traditions have firefighters working overtime.
Taichung fire department says it received 231 cases related to cemetery fires between March 7 and March 21. It said it received over 50 of those cases in a single day.
Fire officials are asking people to play it safe when tomb-sweeping. They ask the public to avoid burning anything at all outdoors, if possible, and to clean up after themselves.
If people can abide by those guidelines, then Taiwan’s firefighters won’t be feeling so burnt out.