With six days of intense firefighting by more than 11,000 people and the assistance of artificially induced rainfall, the four major fires that broke out late last week in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province are basically out.

All the brigades in the Yichun, Zhanhe, Heihe and Daxing'anling forestry areas are still watching closely for flare-ups while clearing hot spots, according to an official.

The provincial and Hujia municipal weather bureaus are prepared to continue cloud-seeding operations if necessary.

Zhao Sheng, director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Forest Fire Control Office, said that casualty and property loss figures were not yet available.

Heilongjiang Governor Zhang Zuoji joined top local leaders at the site to oversee firefighting operations.

The fire broke out last Thursday afternoon in Heihe when forestry workers lost control of a blaze set to clear vegetation in a belt around a protected forest. By Friday the fire had spread and threatened two large tree farms.

"Such practices [to clear the fire control belt] are generally an effective way to avoid forest fires in Heilongjiang Province. However, it turned out to be the prime culprit in the disaster this time," said Zhao.

In addition, the dry, windy weather that has lasted since October 1 accelerated the fire's spread., and it rapidly jumped to the surrounding Yichun, Zhanhe and Daxing'anling areas.

Some 1,682 fire brigades, 1,619 armed police and more than 8,000 other people were mobilized to extinguish the blaze.

The Heilongjiang Forestry Administration reported 21 forest fires and fire alerts from October 12 through 17.

The governor issued an urgent notice to authorities across the province to strengthen fire prevention.

All forestry departments have been instructed to cooperate with local disciplinary inspection and supervision sectors to identify arsonists.

(China Daily October 20, 2004)