TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Photos of a fire on Xiaolanyu resembling a "volcanic eruption" surfaced on social media on Tuesday (July 12).
The Orchid Island branch of the Taitung Country Fire Bureau at 6 p.m. on Tuesday received a notification that a fire had broken out on Xiaolanyu, an uninhabited island about five kilometers southeast of Orchid Island, reported CNA. The blaze was so bright that concerned tourists on Orchid Island had contacted the fire department.
(LINE photo)
However, after a brief investigation, the fire department found that the fire had been set by local shepherds to burn dry weeds. The sheepherders claim that the fires clear the way for new grass for their flocks.
The fire department monitored the blaze but said that it burned itself out by 8 p.m. According to the fire bureau, it is a custom of residents of Orchid Island to go to the island, which covers an area of 1.75 kilometers, to set such fires for their sheep.
(Facebook photo)
An elder from the Indigenous Yami (Tao) people told CNA that people have raised sheep on Xiaolanyu for many years and that once in a while, they set fire to overgrown weeds to clear the way for grass that the sheep can better graze on.
(CNA photo)
(LINE photo)
