Thousands of policemen, military personnel, forest rangers and local residents have joined forces to fight a fire eating its way through U Minh Thuong National Park in the southernmost province of Kien Giang. The forest fire, which officials say started on March 23, has been raging out of control. A report of Vietnam's official news agency VNA today says firefighters have contained the blaze but not before it destroyed an estimated 4,200 hectares (10,378 acres) of peat swamp forest, wiping out about half the national park.