vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn  

CA MAU — More than 1,250 soldiers and policemen under the command of three generals are working flat out to prevent the fire in the Ca Mau Province’s U Minh Ha Forest from spreading to nearby virgin bushland.

The blaze, which broke out on Friday, has ravaged about 3,000ha of cajeput in U Minh Ha and is threatening the Vo Doi virgin forest only 3km away.

Leading the battle are Lieutenant-General Do Trung Duong, deputy chief of staff of the Viet Nam People’s Army; Lieutenant-General Huynh Tien Phong, region commander of Military Zone 9; and Major-General Truong Huu Quoc, director general of the Police Department.

General Phong said around 1,000 soldiers had been sent to Ca Mau to clear pathways and build roads to combat the fire.

More than 250 firemen from the Public Security Ministry, 10 fire engines and 60 pumps were sent to the site, according to Colonel Bui Van Ngan, general director of the Public Security Ministry’s Fire Prevention and Combat Department.

Twenty provinces in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta and the south of Viet Nam have supported the fire-fighting effort.

Meanwhile, a torrential downpour between 3:45pm and 6:30pm on Wednesday afternoon extinguished most of the fire that had already ravaged 2,460ha of U Minh Thuong National Park in Kien Giang Province.

The rain also provided protective moisture for the 1,000ha of virgin forest in U Minh Thuong National Park.

Despite the rain, authorities repeated their warning that the fire may yet spread to other parts of U Minh Thuong National Park.

U Minh Forest, a special swamp in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, is habitat to hundreds of precious fauna and flora species. The section of U Minh Forest in the Kien Giang Province is U Minh Thuong and the other section in Ca Mau is U Minh Ha.

In 1975, U Minh Thuong forest covered 20,000ha, all primeval forest. Only 15 years later, forest fire and deforestation had destroyed 16,000ha and U Minh Thuong contained a mere 4,000ha of virgin forest.

In 1993, Kien Giang Province mapped out 8,053ha and designated the land as protected forest. The move helped save the U Minh Thuong Forest.

At present U Minh Thuong National Park covers 5,593ha, including 1,000ha of virgin forest.

In 1975, U Minh Ha covered 90,000ha of virgin forests but a fire in 1983 burnt most of these forests to ash.

Only 800ha of virgin forest in U Minh Ha survived the fires in 1994 and 1998, and became part of the Vo Doi Protected Forest.

Two fires have been reported in U Minh Ha since the beginning of the dry season of 2002.

The first fire in mid-March destroyed some 300ha of forest and the second, which broke out on April 10 at U Minh Farm No. 3, destroyed more than 3,000ha of U Minh Ha Forest — VNS