Forest fires prompt finger-pointing

Lawmakers from across the political spectrum demanded yesterday that the government find out which individuals or organizations should be blamed for recent central mountain range forest fires near Lishan.

The lawmakers voiced their dissatisfaction with government handling of the blazes, the worst of their kind in eight years, at a meeting of the legislature's Economic Affairs and Energy Committee.

During the meeting, Council of Agriculture (COA) Chairman Fan Chen-tsung (范振宗) said police authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire, which broke out May 11 in the Lishan area on Mount Snow and was not brought under control until May 17.

"More than 100 people have been questioned so far," Fan said, adding that he thinks human negligence could be the cause of the fires. Nevertheless, he added that the blazes were particularly ferocious because of the oily Pinus taiwanensis Hayata, whose leaves are slow to decay. The fire burned more than 8,100m3 of this kind of plant, commonly known as eryehsung (two-leaf pine) in Chinese. Over the past few decades nobody had cleared its fallen leaves from the area.

Fan said 16 staff members of the COA's Forestry Bureau remain at the disaster site to prevent any possible rekindling.

"Although 11 tree roots were found to be smoldering Sunday, they had all been put out," Fan said, adding that no big fire is likely to break out again in the disaster zone, which covered about 180 hectares.

According to Fan, the fires, which destroyed about 127 hectares of forest, started at a vegetable farm at Lishan in the central county of Taichung.

However, Wei Yu-hui (韋渝惠), deputy secretary-general of the Veterans Affairs Commission (VAC), said the fires began at a forestry reserve near the VAC-managed vegetable farm.

Huang Yu-hsing (黃裕星), director of the COA's Forestry Bureau, said the land has been administered by the bureau since 1959, but the land is now being used and managed by the VAC. In his view, the VAC is obligated to adopt precautionary measures to avert the occurrence of fire or other disasters in the region.

Legislators of various political affiliations at the meeting were annoyed by the reluctance of the COA and the VAC to assume responsibility for the fires.

Meanwhile, PFP legislator Chen Chien-sung (陳劍松) said that Taiwan has yet to take adequate measures to prevent forest fires. For one thing, he said, Taiwan's forests do not have enough fire barriers.

In response, COA Chairman Fan said Taiwan does not lag behind any country in terms of the density of fire barriers in its forests. "What we should do is expand the width of those barriers, which range between 15m and 30m at present," he added.

Moreover, Fan said the Forestry Bureau should plant more varieties of plants to minimize the possible damage caused by fire.

"In addition, we should remove the fuel -- fallen leaves -- more frequently. Otherwise, forests would remove that fuel their own way -- through raging fires," Fan said.