China News Service, Beijing, March 15 (Reporter Guo Chaokai) The forest fires on the east coast of South Korea have been burning for nearly 9 days. The area of fire has broken the historical record in South Korea, and it has also sounded the alarm for forest and grassland fire prevention in China.
At present, it is the critical period of spring fire prevention, especially as the Qingming holiday is approaching, forest and grassland fire prevention must not be careless for a moment.
What is the fire prevention situation of forests and grasslands in China this spring?
What are the risks and challenges faced by the current fire protection work?
What preparations have the National Forest and Grassland Fire Control Headquarters and Emergency Management Department done to deal with potential forest and grassland fire risks?
The reporter interviewed relevant departments and localities a few days ago.
Data map: The Pingliang Detachment of the Gansu Forest Fire Brigade carried out a fire fighting drill.
Photo by Zhang Guangkui
The forest fire prevention situation is severe this spring
The Korea Forestry Administration said on the 13th that the east coast forest fire that started in Uljin County, North Gyeongsang Province, was finally extinguished after nearly 9 days.
The forest fire burned an area of about 24,000 hectares, equivalent to 33,000 football fields, breaking the record for the largest burned area (23,794 hectares) set by the East Coast forest fire in 2000.
Forest and grassland fires have the characteristics of strong suddenness, great destruction, many uncertain factors, and high risk of fighting. Affected by factors such as global warming, the characteristics of fire prevention and fire fighting have changed, and key areas and fire prevention periods have become blurred. Sexual fire protection is gradually changing to year-round fire protection.
In this regard, Wang Yueping, deputy director of the Fire Prevention and Management Department of the Ministry of Emergency Management, analyzed that from the situation of foreign forest fires in recent years, the catastrophe factors have developed from a single factor in the past to a multi-factor coupling today; the harm caused by catastrophe It has also developed from the loss of single forest and grass resources to the concurrent development of multiple disasters, especially when the forest and grassland fires are close to flammable and explosive targets, the major secondary disasters caused by the extension of the disaster chain will have a negative impact on national security, people's life and property safety, and social security. Stability and ecological security, etc. pose a greater threat.
According to statistics, China's forest fires are mostly concentrated in the northeast and southwest forest areas, accounting for more than 70% of the country.
More than 90% of forest fires are caused by man-made causes. Burning wastes and refining mountains, smoking in the wild, burning paper in graves, and heating and cooking in the wild are the main causes of forest fires.
Grassland fires mostly occur in spring and autumn, and the number of grassland fires caused by human factors accounts for more than 90% of the total number of grassland fires.
"The fire risk situation in China's forests and grasslands in the spring and summer of 2022 is generally close to normal. The average temperature across the country is high, and some areas have periodic meteorological droughts. It is necessary to pay attention to the high fire risk period caused by extreme weather such as high temperature, drought and strong winds in some areas." Wang Yueping said, comprehensive research and judgment It can be seen that in spring, the fire danger level in some areas of northeast, north, southwest and northwest China is relatively high, the temperature in parts of central and east China is high, the precipitation is obviously low, and the fire danger situation is more severe.
In recent years, there have been frequent forest fires in the southwest region, which has also made people pay more attention to the local fire prevention situation in spring.
Since February, there have been two forest fires in Sichuan on February 16, Jiaer Town, Jiulong County, Ganzi, and Manshuiwan Town, Mianning, Liangshan, on February 18.
Cheng Cheng, deputy chief of the Sichuan Forest Fire Brigade, said that in the spring of 2022 (mid-March to May), the western Sichuan Plateau and Panxi region will experience dry winters and spring droughts throughout the year, dry combustibles under forests, and frequent strong winds and dry thunderstorms. In addition, there are frequent human activities such as spring ploughing and preparation for farming, forest production, engineering project construction, spring outings, and ancestor worship during the Qingming Festival, which are very prone to forest and grassland fires.
What are the challenges facing firefighting today?
The severe forest and grassland fire prevention situation in spring has brought certain challenges to the fire prevention and fighting work.
In the past few decades, China's ecological construction has taken the "increment-based" path, vigorously afforestation and grass planting, greatly increasing forest and grass resources, rapid accumulation of combustibles in forests, and a relatively increase in the proportion of young and middle-aged forests prone to fires. The task is more onerous.
In recent years, the global weather has continued to warm, and extreme weather such as high temperatures, droughts, and strong winds has occurred frequently and concurrently, which has increased the probability of forest and grassland fires to a certain extent.
At the same time as natural risk factors are increasing, human-made potential risk challenges are also increasing.
Folk customs such as funerals and sacrificial fires use fire, fire for farming and mountain alchemy, and fire for living in forest and pastoral areas are still very dangerous.
In the upcoming Qingming Festival, sacrificial activities such as burning paper on graves are more likely to cause fires.
With the development of economy and society, the past "punch-in" tourism has been transformed into the current "vacation", "immersion" and diversified tourism. It makes people and forests coexist longer and fire source management is more difficult.
Taking Mount Emei, one of the "Four Famous Buddhist Mountains" in China as an example, burning incense and praying for blessings is an important reason for many tourists to come here, which also brings a severe test to the scenic spot.
Cheng Cheng said that in order to effectively prevent the occurrence of forest and grassland fires in the scenic area, forest firefighters strictly control the first level of forest fire prevention in the scenic area by supervising tourists to scan the forest fire code and seize the fire source.
It is worth noting that in addition to the potential risks caused by natural and human factors, the current forest and grassland firefighting personnel, equipment allocation, and resource planning still need to be further strengthened.
How to prevent and control major forest and grassland fires?
Forest and grassland fires are destructive and sudden. How to prevent major fires in spring?
It is especially important to play the "first mover" of fire prevention.
More than 90% of forest and grassland fires in China are caused by man-made causes, which requires forest firefighting teams in all regions to focus on the investigation of hidden dangers and improve fire source management and control capabilities; issue fire bans in a timely manner, and strictly implement the approval system for wild fires. On the premise of ensuring safety Guarantee the use of fire for people's production activities; strictly control the use of fire in folk customs such as going to the grave, burning paper, offering sacrifices and praying for blessings, strictly organize plans to burn and burn the wasteland and refine the mountains, and resolutely defend the first line of defense.
Last year, the Emergency Management Department and relevant departments carried out a special campaign to control wild fire sources and investigate and deal with illegal use of fire, and a special campaign to investigate and control fire hazards in power transmission and distribution facilities in forest and pastoral areas. The number of fires caused by mountain afforestation, power transmission and distribution failures, and fires used in wild life decreased by 83%, 48%, 46%, 44%, 38% and 36% respectively compared with the average in the past five years.
Faced with the severe fire prevention situation in forests and grasslands, global mobile reinforcements are becoming the norm.
In recent years, China has further strengthened the command and dispatch of emergency response forces, the pre-positioning of forces, and the coordination of various types of air and ground firefighting forces. The national forest fire brigade normally maintains 18,530 people on duty at all times, 2,900 people are stationed in front of 10 provinces, and 1,792 people are on duty. People were stationed across provinces, and the southern and northern aviation forest protection stations implemented aircraft deployment in 20 provinces, and successfully dealt with many forest fires.
The forest firefighting team has been continuously strengthened, especially in Beijing, Liaoning, Hebei, Shanxi, Jiangxi and other provinces and cities, where provincial-level local forest firefighting teams have been established. , The local forest firefighting force with more than 100,000 people.
"In addition, China has further optimized the production capacity, regional distribution, and reserve scale structure of forest and grassland fire-fighting materials, and increased its reserves of 300 million yuan of fire-fighting materials." Wang Yueping said that in the past, the number of large planes used to extinguish fires, planes suitable for special terrain, and advanced large-scale equipment Limited. In recent years, we have promoted the construction of aviation fire fighting forces, supported local governments to introduce large aircraft, reasonably expanded the coverage, accelerated the construction of aviation forest protection stations, parking apron, and water intake points, strengthened the research on air-air integration and ground-air cooperation tactics, and improved the efficiency of fire fighting. Explore the multi-element, three-dimensional prevention and control methods that organically integrate physical defense, technical defense, and human defense, and promote the transformation of fire prevention and fire fighting work from a traditional model to an information-led, multi-dimensional approach.
With the joint efforts of all parties, the number of forest fires and the affected area in 2021 will be reduced to a record low.
At present, forest and grassland fire prevention and fire fighting in spring is still facing a severe and complex situation. All localities must strengthen grass-roots governance and territorial responsibility, learn from past forest and grassland fires, implement fire prevention measures into actions, and completely block the blind spots and loopholes in forest and grassland fire prevention. and dead ends to avoid similar disasters from repeating themselves again and again.
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