Fire along northern border extinguished

The fire along the China-Russia border and China-Mongolia border in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, was extinguished early on Friday, according to the region's forest fire brigade.

A total of 152 firefighters, divided into two groups, will continue patrolling the border to clean up any hot spots, the brigade said.

At noon on Thursday, satellite remote sensing showed that there were abnormally high temperatures outside the region's Xin Barga Right Banner, about 17 kilometers from the border of Inner Mongolia.

Driven by strong winds, the fire continued burning and moved farther toward the region. At the same time, another hot spot was found in Russia and near Manzhouli city in Hulunbuir.

Winds pushed the fire in Russia quickly to Manzhouli, which could seriously threaten the residents' lives and property, the brigade said.

The brigade dispatched more than 300 firefighters and more than 50 rescue vehicles to carry out a rescue mission in the two areas, Xinhua News Agency reported.

As of Friday, the team had extinguished fires along six kilometers of border and cleaned up 70 hot spots, preventing the blaze from entering the region.