KUNMING - A helicopter and more than 1,000 people have been dispatched to help extinguish a forest fire that continues to rage in southwest China's Yunnan province, local authorities said Monday evening.

A rescue team consisting of 1,075 military personnel and civilians was sent to the site of the blaze Monday evening, local authorities said.

The fire, which broke out at 5:25 pm Sunday in Yimen county, defied overnight firefighting efforts and spread through the county's mountainous forests to Caopu township in Anning, a county-level city on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Kunming, said a spokesman from the provincial forest fire prevention headquarters.

A helicopter and five excavators from the nearby city of Dali have been mobilized to help fight the fire.

A severe drought has lingered in Yunnan for three consecutive years, causing water shortages for several million residents and creating fire risks.

Yunnan is China's second most heavily-forested province, with a total forest coverage of 47 percent.