More than 10 officials were punished last year for failing to adequately control and fight forest fires, the State Forestry Administration (SFA) said recently.

Du Yongsheng, director of the forest police bureau under the SFA released the findings of eight cases in which fires were deliberately set and resulted in large losses.

One case involved the destruction last March of 520 hectares of forest in Yunnan Province. Some 6,500 people were needed to fight the blaze, which burned for more than 10 days and left a bill of 11 million yuan ($1.4 million). A mentally ill man was suspected of setting the fire but he escaped punishment.

Three officials were punished, however, for not dealing with the matter in an appropriate way.

Cao Qingyao, spokesman of the SFA, told a news conference, that about 95 percent of the some 7,000 forest fires last year were caused by people.

Cao said that due to persistent drought, higher than average temperatures and strong winds, forest fires were increasingly likely to break out.

Forests in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and northeast China's Heilongjiang Province were particularly at risk, he said.

Du warned forest firemen to closely monitor likely sources of fires and to keep up to date with weather conditions. He said that 97 percent of forest fires should be put out the day they happen and that no more than 0.1 percent of any forest should be burnt every year.

However, Du said that in Northeast and Southwest China, only 90-94 percent of fires are extinguished on the same day. Forest police teams should be expanded to provide better protection, he said.

(China Daily May 9, 2007)