Firefighters are remaining vigilant after they put out a forest fire in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Friday morning.

Fu Ming, deputy chief of the Chongqing Forest Police Bureau, said firefighters would stay at the scene of the blaze to prevent any further fires from breaking out in the tinderbox conditions.

The blaze broke out on Wednesday in Yakou Village, Yubei District, around 40 kilometers northeast of downtown Chongqing, and soon spread to neighboring Beibei District.

Fu said that no casualties were reported as a result of the fire, which ravaged more than 66 hectares of drought-parched forest and was fought by around 6,000 soldiers, firefighters, armed police and local residents.

The cause of the fire remains unknown, but the prolonged drought plaguing the city undoubtedly contributed to its spread, he said.

Chongqing Forest Police Bureau said that the city suffered from 97 forest fires since the beginning of August, which destroyed 607 hectares of farmland.

Chongqing is currently suffering from its worst drought since the city's meteorological records began in 1891.

The drought has affected more than 1.3 million hectares, or 97 percent of the city's cropland, and resulted in losses of nearly 6.9 billion yuan (US$860 million).

Meanwhile, 320,000 hectares of cropland have seen no harvests due to the drought.

Nearly 8 million people and 7.3 million livestock have difficulty in obtaining drinking water, according to the Chongqing Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

Temperatures between 40 and 42 C were reported in most parts of Chongqing on Friday. The blistering weather may end between next Monday and Wednesday when rain is expected to lower the mercury by eight and 12 C, said Liu De, chief of Chongqing Meteorological Observatory.

Vice Mayor Chen Guangguo said on Wednesday that the central and municipal governments had allocated 223 million yuan (US$28 million) to fight the drought in Chongqing.

The next day, E Jingping, secretary-general of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, announced that the central government would allocate a further 20 million yuan (US$2.5 million) to Chongqing to fight the drought.

The headquarters asked the authorities in Chongqing to prepare a long-term campaign against the drought and assist affected people this winter and next spring.

(China Daily September 2, 2006)