Forest fires killed 41 people and injured 62 in China last year,
the State Forestry Administration reported on Wednesday.
According to Cao Qingyao, spokesman for the administration, the
number of casualties was down 82.4 percent on the average level
over previous years. However, no direct comparison with last year's
figure was made available.
A total of 407,624 hectares of forest was damaged by 7,946
fires, with both figures down by nearly 40 percent on the average
figures of previous years, Cao revealed.
Statistics regarding economic losses were not disclosed.
Most of the forest fires occurred between March and May, when a
daily average of more than 100 sites suffered from some form of
fire, Cao said.
The forestry administration reported in September that China had
suffered 7,002 forest fires in the first eight months of the year,
leaving 33 people dead, 73 injured and 380,000 hectares of forest
damaged.
We spent 142 million yuan (US$17.75 million) on fire prevention
and fire-fighting last year, and more than 20 million yuan worth of
supplies were allocated, said Cao.
"Fire fighters were faced with unprecedented challenges due to
difficult access to forest fire sites and atrocious weather," said
Cao.
Apart from forested areas in the northeast and southwest, which
are prone to blazes, several famous scenic spots in north China,
including the Fragrant Hills in the suburbs of Beijing, were also
hit by forest fires, said Cao.
Lightening strikes sparked off a blaze in China's largest virgin
camphor pine area in Hulun Buir City of Inner Mongolia in mid-May,
with 8,300 hectares of camphor pines engulfed in flames.
In the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, fires raged for
more than ten days at the Kanduhe Forest Farm in Greater Hinggan
Mountains and in Galashan area of Heihe City near Russia.
More than 33,000 people were called on to fight the three major
fires, according to the state fire-fighting headquarters.
The affected regions, which extend deep into China's largest
virgin forest in the Greater Hinggan Mountains, suffered from
extremely arid weather in May, with rainfall down 80 percent on the
same period of 2005.
(Xinhua News Agency January 11, 2007)
