Chongqing to establish brigade for forest fires

Following the recent spate of wildfires caused by drought and a prolonged heat wave in Chongqing, the municipality is to establish a dedicated forest fire brigade by next year, according to emergency management authorities.

Recently, Hui Chunlei, deputy director of the political department at the Forest Fire Bureau of the Ministry of Emergency Management, led a research group to Chongqing.

According to the research group, to ensure China can better respond to forest fire risks, it will promote a national comprehensive reform plan for fire and rescue. The group said more staff will be added to national fire and rescue teams this year, and Chongqing will establish its own fire and rescue team dedicated to forest fires.

The first group of new recruits will be trained by the Sichuan Provincial Forest Fire Brigade this year and start working next year. The second group will be added in the second half of next year, according to the plan.

In August, the southwestern municipality of more than 32 million people was hit by its worst heat wave since 1961, when nationwide weather observation statistics began. The city experienced record-high temperatures, with the mercury in Beibei district reaching 45 C on Aug 18.

The lingering heat and drought caused a series of large wildfires in the "city of mountains" from Aug 17.

The local government set up a forest fire rescue headquarters, organized by local professional fire and rescue teams, as well as teams from Yunnan, Gansu and Sichuan provinces, and more than 20,000 Party and government cadres and volunteers to fight the fires.

Thanks to the joint efforts of fire and rescue workers from all over the country, volunteers and residents, all the fires in the city had been extinguished by late August.

According to the local emergency management authorities, Chongqing has a forest area of 4.5 million hectares and a forest coverage rate of 54.5 percent, ranking 10th in the country. With wide forests and complex landforms, Chongqing's wildfire risks are considered to be high across multiple seasons.

The establishment of a dedicated forest fire and rescue team will be of great significance for Chongqing as well as for the ecological barrier in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the local emergency management bureau said.

China has nine provincial-level forest fire brigades in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu and Fujian provinces and the Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions.