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)