Two forest fires raged in New Mexico, the United States. They became the largest forest fire in the state's history after being connected last month. So far, they have not been extinguished. The cause of forest fires has attracted much attention, and the US forestry administration admitted on the 27th that the two forest fires were ignited by the forestry administration, which stunned many people.
Manual ignition out of control
According to the associated press, two forest fires occurred in the southern mountains of the rocky mountains east of Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico. One of the forest fires started to burn in January. It seems that after being extinguished, it burned again and again on April 19; Another forest fire broke out on April 6. The two forest fires were connected and merged on April 22. So far, the burned area is nearly 1300 square kilometers, equivalent to the area of the whole new york city.
According to the survey, the US forestry administration originally intended to burn shrubs and litter in a controlled way, so as to reduce the risk of forest fire in the dry season. Contrary to our wishes, the forestry bureau's practice of artificially igniting fires not only failed to reduce the probability of forest fires, but also ignited the most rampant forest fires in the history of New Mexico.
In January this year, the U.S. government announced a $50billion mountain fire prevention plan. The measures include at least doubling the number of logging and the number of manual fires to reduce the amount of vegetation in mountain forest areas. In some vast areas, the speed of cutting down trees is too slow, and the forestry department is more inclined to take artificial fire measures to "burn it".
"I haven't seen such a big mountain fire in 71 years"
Two forest fires burned at least 330 homes, forcing thousands of residents to evacuate.
Barbara Qur, a local resident, told CNN: "I haven't seen such a big and serious mountain fire in 71 years."
The White House said in a statement a few days ago that a wildfire has occurred in New Mexico since April 5 and has continued, causing "major disasters".
At present, the forest fire is still raging, and about 3000 firefighters continue to fight the fire. It is estimated that the total expenditure on fire fighting has exceeded 132million US dollars. Each additional day means an additional $5million in fire fighting expenses.
Travis Regensberg, a contractor involved in the fire fighting in New Mexico, said: "this is a nightmare. We are too difficult. I have been working for 17 days, sleeping only threeorfour hours a day, in order to protect the residents living here."
The government "bears full responsibility"
New Mexico Governor Michel Luhan Grisham said in a statement on the 27th: "the US forestry administration should have helped us manage this land well, but now it has brought incalculable pain and suffering to the people of New Mexico."
Grisham believed that the federal government of the United States "bears full responsibility" for the tragedy, and the federal government should "pay 100% of the costs of post disaster reconstruction".
Some members of Congress and public figures also expressed concern and dissatisfaction about the forest fire in New Mexico and its causes.
Randy Moore, the director of the US forestry administration, announced last week that the practice of manual ignition would be suspended for 90 days to reassess the relevant regulations. At that time, he mentioned that the fire risk was too high and adverse weather conditions, but did not explain whether the above decision was related to the forest fire in New Mexico.
CNN reported that about 300000 acres (about 121400 hectares) of land in New Mexico have been burned this year, more than the total area burned by wildfires in the state in the past two years.
The wildfire season in the southwest of the United States usually begins in May or June, but this year, due to strong winds, large-scale drought and dry vegetation, the wildfire season comes ahead of schedule. In late April, there were more than 12 large-scale wildfires burning at the same time in hepingyuan, a mountainous area in the southwest of the United States. Among the States, New Mexico has the worst wildfire disaster. (comprehensive news from Xinhua News Agency)