Two forest fires have been controlled in Guiyang city, capital of southwest China's Guizhou Province, local authorities said late on Saturday. No casualty report has been available.

The two fires began at 3:00 PM on Friday afternoon in Huaxi District of Guiyang City and burned 20 hectares, but they have been controlled, said Jiang Xueming, head of the rescue team under the local work safety administration.

More than 1,000 firefighters evacuated residents nearby and removed on the Friday evening more than 100 tons of explosives produced by a local factory which would have been ignited, Jiang said.

The state fire fighting headquarter has arranged an aircraft to fight the fires, but it is still unsure when the fires will be eradicated due to the strong wind and dry weather, he said.

Investigations into the cause of the fires are underway.

The fires came a month after Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu warned that China has entered "an extremely dangerous period during which there is a very high risk of forest fires", as high temperatures have been hovering over northeast, north and southwest China regions since the beginning of winter last year.

(Xinhua News Agency March 4, 2007)