With six days of intense firefighting by more than 11,000 people
and the assistance of artificially induced rainfall, the four major
fires that broke out late last week in northeast China's Heilongjiang
Province are basically out.
All the brigades in the Yichun, Zhanhe, Heihe and Daxing'anling
forestry areas are still watching closely for flare-ups while
clearing hot spots, according to an official.
The provincial and Hujia municipal weather bureaus are prepared
to continue cloud-seeding operations if necessary.
Zhao Sheng, director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Forest Fire
Control Office, said that casualty and property loss figures were
not yet available.
Heilongjiang Governor Zhang
Zuoji joined top local leaders at the site to oversee
firefighting operations.
The fire broke out last Thursday afternoon in Heihe when
forestry workers lost control of a blaze set to clear vegetation in
a belt around a protected forest. By Friday the fire had spread and
threatened two large tree farms.
"Such practices [to clear the fire control belt] are generally
an effective way to avoid forest fires in Heilongjiang Province.
However, it turned out to be the prime culprit in the disaster this
time," said Zhao.
In addition, the dry, windy weather that has lasted since
October 1 accelerated the fire's spread., and it rapidly jumped to
the surrounding Yichun, Zhanhe and Daxing'anling areas.
Some 1,682 fire brigades, 1,619 armed police and more than 8,000
other people were mobilized to extinguish the blaze.
The Heilongjiang Forestry Administration reported 21 forest
fires and fire alerts from October 12 through 17.
The governor issued an urgent notice to authorities across the
province to strengthen fire prevention.
All forestry departments have been instructed to cooperate with
local disciplinary inspection and supervision sectors to identify
arsonists.
(China Daily October 20, 2004)