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)