Check-up under way to prevent new fires in Heilongjiang

HARBIN, Oct. 20, 2004-- Nine out of the 11 fire scenes at the northern forestry regions of Heilongjiang Province, northeast China, have been enclosed and put under control, with no burning flames reported at most of the scenes.

An exclusive working team under the Administration of Forestry is investigating into the enclosed fire scenes to ensure that there will be no dying embers to flare up.

The administration's satellite data as of 11:00 a.m. Wednesday showed there were no large areas of burning flames in the forestry regions.

But small burning fires have been found at Xingfu and Mount Tianlong fire sites in Zhanhe forestry region. Fire fighters are endeavoring to extinguish the fire.

"It is worse fire that was seldom seen over the past few years in terms of number of fire scenes and the total area of forestry regions ravaged," said Lei Jiafu, deputy director of the forestry administration.

A forest fire started to ravage the Heihe forest region on Oct.14 when local forestry fire control authorities lit an alarm fire hoping to prevent disastrous fires. The alarm blaze set fire on larger areas of forest than expected and soon spread to nearby Dahinggan Mountains, Yichun and Zhanhe regions.

The Zhanhe forest region, one of the country's most vulnerable regions to forest fires, caught fire on Oct. 15. The fire was brought under control at 2:10 a.m. Tuesday, said Wang Chuntai, head of the forest fire brigade of the armed police troops in Harbin, the provincial capital.

Wang said the provincial forest fire control headquarters had created artificial rainfall over all the fire-ravaged forests fromMonday afternoon to Tuesday morning to ease the fire.

By press time, 12,115 armed policemen have been dispatched to fight against the fires, and 17 airplanes have been distributed for major fire scenes.

Earlier report said dry, clear and windy weathers in these daysmade it difficult to extinguish the forest fire.

Forestry experts say that 80 percent of the woods under the fire will not die.

Actual area of the fire-ravaged forests and loss incurred are being counted.

According to the provincial meteorogical center, there would beoccasional snow Wednesday night in the Dahinggan Mountains and Heihe and Yichun would expect a cloudy weather. And occasional snow is also forecast in Dahinggan Mountains and southern Yichun for Thursday, the center added.