Forest and grassland fire is listed as one of the eight major natural disasters in the world by the United Nations, which not only seriously damages forest resources and ecological environment, but also causes great harm to people's lives and property and public safety. China has a vast territory, and the task of forest and grassland fire prevention and control is arduous.

At the second quarter press conference held by the State Forestry and grass administration, Zhou Hongsheng, director of the forest and Grassland Fire Prevention Department of the State Forestry and grass administration, introduced the situation of forest and grassland fire prevention work since this year.

△Zhou Hongsheng, director of forest and Grassland Fire Prevention Department of State Forestry and grassland administration

Forest and grassland fire is listed as one of the eight major natural disasters in the world by the United Nations, which not only seriously damages forest resources and ecological environment, but also causes great harm to people's lives and property and public safety. China has a vast territory, and the task of forest and grassland fire prevention and control is arduous. Novel coronavirus pneumonia is a high risk in the most areas of China, especially in Southwest China and Southern China. The forest and grassland fire risk is still high. In addition, the new crown pneumonia epidemic has swept across the country.

According to statistics, there were 392 forest fires from January to March this year (including 148 general fires, 52 major fires, 1 major fire, and no particularly serious fires), with an area of 1128.5 hectares and 29 casualties. Compared with the same period in 2019, the number of forest fires, the number of damaged areas and the number of casualties due to disasters decreased by 37.2%, 63.3% and 44.2% respectively; there were 4 grassland fires in China, The total damaged area was 11 hectares, no casualties occurred, and the fire index decreased significantly.

Zhou Hongsheng introduced that in response to the fire, the State Forestry and grass Administration held video dispatching meetings of forest and grass systems in southwest, North and northeast regions respectively. According to the fire weather grade forecast and high fire risk early warning information released by the meteorological department, the State Forestry and grass Administration reported the current fire situation, analyzed and discussed the fire situation, focused on the key time periods, and scientifically guided the key fire danger areas to prevent and move due to danger. Organize and guide more than 1 million local forest (grass) personnel to patrol mountains and protect forests (grass), strictly control fire sources; guide all localities to extensively carry out fire prevention publicity activities, improve the fire prevention awareness of the whole people, and create a strong fire prevention atmosphere. At the same time, 15 forest resources supervision commissioner offices of the State Forestry and grass administration were organized to carry out special fire prevention inspection; under the unified arrangement of the national forest protection index, fire prevention inspection was carried out on 9 provinces (districts and cities) including Beijing and Hebei before and after the Qingming Festival, and the forest and grassland fire prevention and extinguishing supervision was carried out in Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and other six provinces (districts and cities) before and after the May 1 Festival, so as to resolutely control fire hazards.

Zhou Hongsheng pointed out that at present, North China, Southwest China and other places are in a high fire risk period of forest and grassland, and key state-owned forest areas in Northeast and Inner Mongolia are also about to enter the critical period of spring defense. With the gradual end of the epidemic situation, long-term closure will lead to concentrated outbreak of field production and living fire, and tourists entering the forest area will have a retaliatory rebound, and field fire source control is facing great pressure

△Press conference

In view of the current situation of fire prevention, the State Forestry and grass administration will take five measures to further strengthen the work of forest and grassland fire prevention.

One is to strictly implement the responsibility and conduct pressure layer by layer. According to the requirements of "forest law" and "forest fire prevention regulations", local Party committees and governments at all levels should be urged to implement the responsibility system of forest fire prevention executive heads, and put forest and grassland fire prevention work in an important position in the work of Party committees and governments. Conscientiously fulfill the industry management responsibilities of forest and grass departments, clarify the work responsibilities and decompose the tasks layer by layer. It is required that state-owned forest areas, state-owned forest farms, nature reserves, national parks and other nature reserves should conscientiously perform the responsibilities of business entities, delimit responsibility areas, determine responsible persons, and implement various preventive measures.

The second is to thoroughly investigate the hidden danger and strictly manage the fire source. The working group was organized to go to the key state-owned forest areas in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia to carry out squat fire prevention supervision, check hidden dangers, plug loopholes and promote rectification. Urge local organizations to carry out fire source inspection in the field, strengthen fire source control, especially strengthen the supervision of key parts, key areas and key groups, and strictly investigate the illegal use of fire. The forest and grass departments in key areas were instructed to "increase two and one increase" in the critical period (i.e., adding temporary fire prevention inspection stations, increasing temporary forest guards, and increasing patrol density), so as to ensure that the mountains are watched, the forests are protected, the fire is managed and the responsibility is borne by others, and the prevention and control network is firmly organized to reduce the fire occurrence rate. Extensive publicity and education activities should be carried out to improve the fire prevention awareness of the whole people and create a strong fire prevention atmosphere. Cooperate with the public security organs to crack down on the illegal use of fire in the wild, strengthen the fire prevention law enforcement, and deal with the persons responsible for the forest and grassland fires according to the law, and find out, investigate and deal with them, expose them together and frighten them.

Third, make emergency preparations to ensure early detection and treatment of fire. Based on the principle of early detection, early report and early treatment of forest and grassland fire danger, close cooperation with forest defense early warning agencies and meteorological departments is carried out to strengthen short-term fire risk prediction and forecast; fully rely on satellite, aircraft, video, watchtower and ground patrol and other means to quickly detect and report fire; local professional fire fighting teams and fire-fighting equipment are stationed forward to strengthen training To ensure rapid dispatch, arrival and disposal after receiving the fire alarm, and improve the 24-hour extinguishing rate.

The fourth is to strengthen capacity building and improve the level of fire prevention and control. We will strengthen scientific and technological fire prevention, promote the construction of an integrated monitoring and patrol system of satellite remote sensing, aircraft patrol, video monitoring, mountain lookout and personnel patrol, so as to discover and deal with fires in a timely manner. We will study and promulgate the forest and grassland fire prevention assessment system, formulate the early treatment measures for forest and grassland fires, and promote the revision of the forest fire prevention regulations and the grassland fire prevention regulations. We will strengthen the construction of fire prevention infrastructure, carry out the mid-term evaluation of the national forest fire prevention plan (2016-2025), prepare the national grassland fire prevention "fourteenth five year plan", and continuously improve the comprehensive prevention capacity and early fire treatment capacity of forest and grass departments.

Fifth, pay attention to the team building and properly handle the sudden fire. Firmly establish the consciousness of life first and safety first, put fire fighting safety in the first place, and implement scientific fire fighting. Strengthen the training of fire fighting knowledge and emergency avoidance of professional and semi professional teams in the system. Comrades with rich experience in command and rescue in the system are required to participate in commanding fire fighting, understand what kind of fire can be hit and what kind of fire can not be fought, and consider the route of avoiding danger in advance, so as to truly know what kind of fire can be fought and what kind of fire can not be fought, so as to ensure the safety of people's lives, property and forest and grassland resources.