Full Alert Urged after Forest Fire in Northeast China

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, March 31, 2003

Full Alert Urged after Forest Fire in Northeast China

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Sunday urged local governments to pay more attention to the prevention of forest fires.

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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Sunday urged local governments to pay more attention to the prevention of forest fires.

Referring to the blazes in the Greater Hinggan Mountain Forest in Northeast China, Wen said governments should be on high alert while conducting fire control work and take measures to prevent any possible fires.

While about 10,000 people were still fighting the forest fires Sunday, a source from the Heilongjiang provincial government said they were being brought under control.

Ironically, the fires started along a belt which is regularly burned to prevent outbreaks.

Given this year's scant rainfall, exceptionally dry air and rising temperatures, the forest was tinder-dry, a local forestry administration official said.

The fires are thought to have been ignited by an underground spark which was a remnant of previous prevention activities along the belt, the source said.

The fires are currently burning in dry marshland and on roadsides. Extinguishing the blazes will be difficult given the complex geographic features. The spot fires are covering a large area, most of which is underground, the source said.

Residences and adjacent forests have so far been spared.

More than 2,000 policemen from the region and from the cities of Harbin, Mudanjiang and Jiamusi have been deployed to assist in the effort to fight the fires. Two more teams are standing by.

The region declared a fire alert season on March 23, more than 20 days earlier than last year.

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