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Forest fire nears Kunming

Some 6,000 firefighters were yesterday battling a raging forest fire that spread to within 20km of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, state media reports said.

At least 800 villagers were evacuated near the city, the China Daily said.

The blaze, which began last Wednesday, has already destroyed some 670 hectares of forest in the nearby city of Anning, reports said.

Three people have been injured, though no fatalities have been reported so far, provincial forestry official Yang Yunjin was quoted as saying in the China Daily.

The local fire department has assigned helicopters to douse the blazes with artificial rainfall, the paper said. Firefighters are also cutting a 53km-by-50m fire break to prevent the blaze from spreading to the capital.

Police have detained a 20-year-old woman suspected of lighting the fire, but she was unable to give her name or address, the paper said. She was sent to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation, it said.

A prolonged drought combined with strong winds stoked the flames, it said.

"Both the woods and the weather are dry, which makes it easy for the fire to spread," Yang was quoted as saying.

The Yunnan fire follows three blazes in Shanxi Province late last month.

The State Council issued an urgent notice on Tuesday for provinces in the north, northeast and southwest -- which have seen severe declines in rainfall this spring -- to be on high alert and prepare for fires, Xinhua news agency said.
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