China's last virgin forest burns

More than 14,000 police and firefighters were struggling today to douse a blaze raging through China's largest remaining virgin forest, the government said.

As of late yesterday, the fire at remote the Kanduhe tree farm in the Greater Hinghan mountain range was still out of control, fed by hot, dry weather and high winds, the provincial government said in a notice on its website.

The mountains in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang are at China’s northernmost tip, 1,500kms from Beijing.

The fire began burning more than a week ago, although no figures were available for the area now burned. Government spokesmen in the area were not immediately available to comment.

Thousands of other firefighters were fighting another forest fire near the city of Heihe just to the south, while more than 3,000 more were trying to contain a blaze just across the provincial border in China's Inner Mongolia region, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The region is a key area for China’s forestry industry, but has been plagued by poor management and a prolonged drought over much of the country’s north.

Firefighters earlier this month used chemicals to bring on a snowfall that helped extinguish another forest fire in Inner Mongolia.