Chongqing - The summer of 2022 will forever be remembered by the people of Chongqing. Despite the ongoing extreme heatwave, forest fires, drought, and pandemic outbreak in the city, the Chongqing people have shown their resolve to overcome the challenges.
Since August, fires have been blazing in mountain forests in Banan District, Beibei District, and other areas in Chongqing. People from all walks of life are joining battle with roaring fires. The pictures that documented the heart-touching moments softened people's hearts this summer.
Chongqing Blue Sky Rescue Team: I can carry on
As Yao Yu awoke from exhaustion after battling for 12 hours, he said, "Captain, I can carry on." He was one of the Chongqing Blue Sky Rescue Team members who fainted from exhaustion after 12 straight hours of fighting.
On August 21, a mountain fire broke out in Banan District. The Chongqing Blue Sky Rescue Team dispatched 176 people from 6 detachments to participate in the emergency rescue, and 26-year-old Yao Yu was one of them.
Reports indicate that the team's primary goal is to clear a 60-meter-wide forest isolation strip to prevent the fire from spreading further. As the chain saw operator in the team, Yao Yu played an instrumental role in this task.
After working long hours in high temperatures, Yao Yu fainted from exhaustion before completing the task. He was fanned and wiped as his teammates hurriedly tried to cool him down to relieve the heat. Yao Yu's first sentence after waking up was that he could continue.
Yao Yu(right) fainted after hours of rescue. (Photo provided to iChongqing)
In the end, with the joint efforts of 176 team members, the forest isolation belt was successfully built at noon on August 22.
Banan's mission has just concluded. The team rushed to Beibei for rescue on the afternoon of August 23.
Enterprise militia members: It is our responsibility
It has been three days since Pan Qiao and his colleagues participated in the rescue of the Jieshi Mountain fire. Pan is one of the militias in Lingyao Automobile Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Changan Automobile.
Not far from where the fire was burning, the company's party committee immediately made arrangements after receiving the notice from the local government on the afternoon of August 21. In just ten minutes, the vanguard of the militia was assembled and arrived at the front line of the fire under Pan's leadership. The second group of militia also joined the fight shortly after.
They were assisting firefighters in checking the points of fire. Though the excavators, fire trucks, and sprinklers organized by the government at the scene are the main force, two groups of militia also use the most straightforward tools, like buckets and shovels, to put out the fire using the most basic tools.
The group of militia checks the points of fire. (Photo provided to iChongqing)
Having extinguished the fire at the foot of the mountain, Pan continued higher. Pan had to carry bucket after bucket of water up on human backs and rely on human strength. The smoke is so thick that eyes cannot open, and clothes are soaked with sweat, but no one flinches. When he got tired, he napped on the courtyard dam, the field ridge, and at the foot of the tree.
Since the most appropriate time to check the fire is at night, everyone fought all night, rested the next day briefly, and regrouped to go up the mountain in the afternoon.
Pan Qiao said, "The company has always had a militia platoon, and it conducts some emergency drills every day. There are veterans and party members. The average age is 40 years old. Most of them are production line operators and workshop monitors. When the city is in need, everyone must step up to help. "It is the duty of the militia team, and it is the sentiment of a Chongqing person," he stated.
College students volunteer: Being brothers on the front lines
On August 22, a sudden mountain fire raged for nearly 9 hours in Ba'nan District. Xu Rui, 22, was sitting on crates of water, using his mobile phone to contact motorcycle delivery volunteers who were available to deliver those supplies.
Xu Rui is a student of Chongqing Engineering College, but now he is a material dispatcher, busy all night organizing nearly 100 motorcycle riders to deliver relief supplies.
After the fire broke out, hundreds of rescuers gathered in Yangjiagou at first. The headquarters later adjusted the firefighting plan, and the rescuers moved to another location. However, a large amount of water, bread, and glucose must also be transferred. So Xu's task is to send these supplies to another assembly location.
Xu said, "In the beginning, we didn't know each other, but when we chatted, we called each other 'brothers.'"
Xu Rui has joined several motorcycle groups. (Photo provided to iChongqing)
Motorcycle riders: Doing the right thing
In the WeChat group of motorcycle riders, everyone was eager to make themselves available for the rescue operation.
Yi Yuanyun and Guo Renming are friends and come as a team to help. On village roads, motorcycles are the preferred and most friendly means of transportation. They constantly go back and forth, take a break and continue moving.
The couple, Yin Chengbin and Tang Xiaohong heard that their hometown was suffering from a wildfire, so they returned to help. They started to transport bottled water on their motorcycles.
After asking what he would transport, where he should transport it, and what to do with it, Liu Pan devoted himself to carrying water, loading the truck, and setting off, as any other individual would.
Despite the possibility that the rescue work might disturb their routine, riders chose to participate in the rescue work without expecting compensation. "Why did I come? I think we're doing the right thing!"
The motorcycle delivery men. (Photo provided to iChongqing)
Volunteers from the community: We Chongqing girls are not afraid of this
"Would you like a wet towel to go up the mountain?" "Would you like to bring an extra bottle of water?" Yang Yao, a volunteer, keeping an eye on the ice bucket, asked in the bold voice of a Chongqing girl. In front of her, the ice bucket was brimming with towels, gloves, drinking water, beverages, and huge ice cubes floating on top.
Yang Yao lives in the community at the foot of the mountain, where the fire is rampant. After seeing the fire on the mountain on the evening of August 20, she volunteered to come to help. "We Chongqing girls are not afraid of this!" Yang Yao said.
For the past three days, she made up sleep during the day and came to help at night because "there is a shortage of manpower at night."
She spent the most time handing wet towels, wet gloves, and ice water, so her fingers became pruney and wrinkled.
Yang Yao(left) hands out the towel and water at night. (Photo provided to iChongqing)
"My husband told me to stay safe." Yang Yao's husband is an armed police officer participating in the rescue. Knowing that his wife had been standing for too long and the wound on her leg had become infected, he advised her to go home and rest.
"He can't stop me!" Yang Yao said.
There were more than a dozen volunteers from the community with Yang Yao, and everyone came spontaneously. Volunteer Zhao Liangdong has been helping at the firefighting assembly location and has only slept for two hours in three days.