The 110,000-hectare forest fire started by fire prevention workers on October 23 in the Greater Hinggan Mountains of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has finally been extinguished, a forestry official told a press conference in Beijing yesterday.

"No casualties have been reported during the fire. At one point it threatened more than 3,000 square kilometers, stretching for more than 300 kilometers," said Cao Qingyao, spokesperson for the State Forestry Administration.

He said that by 7 PM on Sunday the weeklong fire had been extinguished, thanks to more than 6,300 firefighters and local forestry staff.

"They are now clearing up the sites and preventing any dying embers from blazing up again," he added, and enough food and clothing has been prepared for some 140 homeless locals.

The financial impact of the fire is still not known.

It was started when unexpected force eight winds spread the flames of burning weeds that Nenjiang County forestry workers had set light to in an attempt to create an isolation belt for preventing forest fires.

It spread to Heihe, a neighboring city.

The spokesperson also said that an Inner Mongolian grassland fire that has burned nine days along the Mongolian border has also been fenced off by an isolation belt. It had been declared under control last Wednesday.

(China Daily November 1, 2005)