Authorities in northeast China are mobilizing fire fighters
after satellite pictures showed three forest fires in remote
areas.
The fires were spotted at 10:00?AM Friday in the forest
areas between Heihe City and Yichun City, bordering the Lesser
Hinggan Mountains in Heilongjiang Province, said a provincial
meteorological bureau spokesman.
The two largest fires in Xunke County, of Heihe City, were
estimated to cover 5.5 and 6.6 square km respectively, according to
satellite remote sensing data obtained by the bureau.
Small fires have been reported in the forest area in Nenjiang
County of Heihe City since Oct. 1.
The provincial fire prevention headquarters is organizing people
to put out the fire.
Severe drought hit the province this summer and the average
temperature this autumn was higher than usual, posing a high fire
risk to forest areas as well as the Lesser Hinggan Mountains and
the Greater Hinggan Mountains, the country's largest forest zone,
the bureau warned.
Another blaze, found on Sept. 20 in the Greater Hinggan
Mountains in northern Inner Mongolia, was triggered by dry weather
and lightening strikes and covered 16 square km. More than 4,000
people took three days to extinguish the fire.
(Xinhua News Agency October 5, 2007)