Cloudy Hill Fire

I came home to find Cloudy Hill, otherwise known as 九龍坑山 (Gau Lung Hang Shan, literally Nine Dragons [Kowloon] Pit Hill, and a popular hiking spot), ablaze on its southern facing slope.

For the past several hours I've watched the entire hillside of the 440-metre high peak burn all its vegetation; by the morning I expect the face to be nothing but blackened carbon. The fire is spreading outwards and may well curl around to eat up the northern face. If Hong Kong Fire Services can't put it out with helicopters, the blaze could spread down toward the village houses on the lower eastern slope.

This is what happens when people get careless while burning incense at hillside graves. Some folks simply light the joss sticks or candles and then walk away. Others mishandle the offerings, causing embers or sparks to be blown into winter-dry brush. Or it could simply have been some jerk who tossed away a lit cigarette. Whatever the reason, a large section of the Pat Sin Leng Country Park has been destroyed and it will take years to grow back.

Now whenever I look in that direction I'm going to think of it as Charcoal Hill.

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