In the spring season, there has been a scarcity of rain and dry weather in the southern region of Taiwan.
During the winter and spring seasons, there are often strong downslope winds in the Hengchun Peninsula, which can easily cause uncontrollable fires if they come into contact with sparks. In recent times, there have been frequent incidents of wildfires in cemeteries and fields in the Hengchun Peninsula.
One of such accident we discussed here, when a 4Million NTD worth car was burned down near the cemetery.
With the upcoming Qingming Festival and influx of visitors returning to their hometowns to pay respects to their ancestors, the local authorities, communities, and firefighters have increased their patrols and urged people to be extremely careful when using fire in mountainous areas, fields, and cemeteries.
Lighting fires within the park is strictly prohibited and will result in a fine under the National Park Act. If such behavior leads to a disaster, the person responsible will be prosecuted for arson and will be held liable for civil compensation.
The Deputy Director of the Hengchun Township Agriculture Bureau, Xu Shuguo, stated that since the 228 Memorial Day holiday, there has been a surge in wildfires caused by people burning grass while paying respects to their ancestors.
During the 228 Memorial Day holiday, a fire broke out in the 18th Cemetery in Hengchun, resulting in the unfortunate death of firefighter Xiao Hanlong.
Recently, an unexplained wildfire occurred in the coastal forest and grassland near Longpan Park, and the raging fire spread inland from the coastline for about four hours, burning about 1.4 hectares of grassland.
Because the fire’s starting point was located on the edge of the coastline, firefighting vehicles had difficulty entering the area to extinguish the flames.
Although the authorities dispatched personnel to assist in opening access routes, they could not stop the fire from spreading.
The originally beautiful coastal grassland landscape turned into a blackened wasteland, which is deeply distressing from an ecological perspective.
We have 360 degree tour available on Longpan park right here. This is how it looked 2 years ago:
360-degree view from Longpan view platform. Green grass now was partially burned down
In above video you can also see how windy is it at spring time, this video was shot in spring as well.
These grasslands is one of the landmarks of Kenting especially in Manzhou, and this is particularly the reason why Manzhou is sometimes called a Small Switzerland.