As of 7:00 AM Saturday, the business in Tiantangzhai tourist resort in east China's Anhui Province has completely returned to normal after an 80-hour fire ravage, said the local forest fire fighting headquarters.

 

Fire fighters from the neighboring counties of Huoshan and Shucheng are leaving the Baima Peak, where the forest fire occurred and fire engines loaded with fire extinguishers and buckets are withdrawing from the resort.

 

The fire was completely quenched in the mountain forest, said Zhang Zuofang, vice chief of the headquarters, who led fire fighters to monitor and carefully check the mountain overnight.

 

But Zhang said the headquarters still decided to leave some local fire fighters in the forest in case of a reignition.

 

A group of over 40 tourists from Nanjing, capital of the neighboring Jiangsu Province, who are visiting Tiantangzhai on Saturday morning, said they have heard of the fire but it will not affect their travel schedules because it happened quite far away from the main scenic spots.

 

"Yet many travelers voluntarily quitted smoking on hearing of the fire," said the guide of the group.

 

The fire broke out at 11:00 PM on Tuesday in the bushes on a mountain close to the Tiantangzhai tourist resort.

 

The authorities thought it had been extinguished on Wednesday morning, but the fire flared up again at 11:00 PM the following day and spread to the forest on the 1,600-meter-high Baima Peak inside Tiantangzhai, said Zhang.

 

More than 2,000 fire fighters and soldiers battled the fire. Two were injured and have been taken to hospital but they are not in a serious condition, he added.

 

No tourists were injured or trapped in the fire accident, said Gu Jianhua, general manager of the Tiantangzhai Tourism Development Company.

 

Tiantangzhai is a national forest park, a state-level nature reserve and a tourist resort. It is commonly known as "the last piece of virgin forest in eastern China."

 

 

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 11, 2006)