China suffered 7,002 forest fires in the first eight months of this year, leaving 33 people dead, 73 injured and 380,000 hectares of forest damaged, a top forestry official said on Tuesday.

 

The number of forest fires dropped by 28.8 percent compared with the average of same period over the past three years and the casualties fell by 32.8 percent, said Jia Zhibang, head of the State Forestry Administration, at a conference held on Tuesday in Taiyuan, capital of north China's Shanxi Province.

 

But the area of forest damaged by fire increased by 113 percent, said Jia, also chief of the national headquarters for the prevention of forest fires.

 

Of the 5,747 fire accidents whose cause had been identified, 98 percent were triggered by human activities, he said.

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 13, 2006)