Yangmingshan fire put out after 5 hours; no injuries reported

Taipei, April 14 (CNA) A mountain blaze that broke out on Monday morning in northern Taiwan's Yangmingshan National Park was put out after five hours following multi-agency efforts involving dozens of fire trucks and helicopter water drops.

The fire may have been sparked by a state-run air quality sensor, according to the Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters.

The device was operated by the National Institutes for Applied Research (NIAR) National Center for High-performance Computing, under the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), park officials said.

The fire, which broke out around 11 a.m. Monday near the mountainous Xiaoyoukeng Recreation Area, raged about five hours before it was extinguished at 4:32 p.m., the Taipei City Fire Department said.

The department said 72 personnel were initially dispatched in four command vehicles, 16 fire trucks and an ambulance.

That effort was later expanded to include five additional command vehicles and eight more fire trucks to total 91 personnel on site, the department said.

In addition, the New Taipei City Fire Department also dispatched two vehicles and four firefighters in support.

Taiwan's National Air Service Corps deployed a Black Hawk helicopter from Taichung City for aerial water drops, the fire department said.

The Taipei City Fire Department said the blaze scorched an estimated 50 hectares of land (0.5 square kilometers) in the Mt. Qixing area of the national park.

The fire's location in a saddle between two ridges helped it to spread, officials said.

The Beitou Precinct of the Taipei City Police Department said there had been no injuries reported as of Monday afternoon.

Officials say the exact cause of the fire remains under investigation.