Forest fire in Fujian under control

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-13 14:18

FUZHOU -- A fire in east China's Fujian Province was under control Friday morning after burning for 22 hours and devastating a swathe of mountain forests bordering farmhouses, local authorities said.

As of 10:30 a.m., no signs of fire were visible at the site, which extended to 10 villages in Shaxian County of Sanming City, 270 km from the provincial capital Fuzhou, a forestry official said.

Dying embers of a forest fire are seen in Gaosha town of Shaxian County, east China's Fujian province February 13, 2009. [Xinhua]

More than 3,000 people, including police officers, firemen and villagers, were mobilized to fight the fire, which burned across 130 hectares of forest from 12:30 p.m. Thursday, said Lu Yueliang, deputy forestry chief of the province.

"They are still patrolling the mountains to prevent the blaze breaking out again," he said.

No casualties were reported, but the fire caused panic among residents in 10 villages in Gaosha and Qingzhou townships.

"It's the biggest fire I've ever seen and everyone panicked," said Li Baosheng, an official in Gaosha Village, Gaosha township. "The flames were only 7 or 8 meters from the nearest farmhouse."

Li said the local government evacuated 11 people living close to the site, but dozens more voluntarily moved in with friends or relatives for the night.

"I saw flames in Duanxi Village across the river Thursday afternoon," said a resident in Yangxi Village, who gave his name as "Old Peng".

Peng said he could never understand how the flames crossed the water and spread to his village. "Flames were seen about 500 meters from my house last night."

Peng said he stayed awake all Thursday night. "My neighbors who live closer to the woods on fire stayed with relatives."

The fire forced his son and daughter-in-law to cancel Thursday night's train ride to Dongguan in the southern Guangdong Province, where the young couple hope to find factory jobs.

"I heard trains were disrupted by the fire. It's also too dangerous to cross the fire site, so I told them to stay home for another week," said Peng.

The fire cut power supplies to the Sanming section of two railway lines and delayed 26 trains until 9 p.m. Thursday and temporarily blocked traffic on two highways.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Meanwhile, the provincial fire prevention headquarters Friday banned the use of fire in the wild until March 13.

Thursday saw a chain of forest fires in China, including two in Bijie City of southwestern Guizhou Province that killed two people and injured two others, two in Zhaotong City of Yunnan Province and one in Luzhou City, Sichuan Province.