On April 19, Comrade Pham Duc An, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee inspected fire prevention and fighting in forests damaged by storm No. 3 in Ha Long City and Uong Bi City. Accompanying him were Comrade Nghiem Xuan Cuong, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; representatives of leaders of a number of relevant departments, branches and localities.

According to a report from the Department of Agriculture and Environment, by August 2024, Quang Ninh had 380,168 hectares of forest, of which 119,766 hectares were natural forests and the rest were planted forests, with a coverage rate of 55.1%. In September 2024, Typhoon Yagi made landfall in the province, causing damage to about 128,873 hectares, accounting for about 34% of the province's total forest area. The forest coverage rate after the storm was 45.5%, a decrease of 9.6%. Up to now, many areas of fallen forest have dried up, posing a very high risk of fire.

Meanwhile, to start the new crop, many forest owners are taking advantage of the weather to treat the ground cover, mostly by burning, while not really following the instructions and guidance of the professional agency on PCCCR, leading to the situation of spreading fires and being unable to control them. According to statistics, since the time after Typhoon Yagi until now, there have been 59 fires in the whole province, mainly in areas where forests were broken after the storm, or ground cover fires in areas after logging planted forests, with a total burned area of ​​about 600 hectares.

Although to prevent and control fires; localities and functional forces have operated according to regulations on PCCCR, mobilizing over 7,000 people to participate in fire fighting, mainly the Army, Police, Forest Rangers, PCCCR teams at the commune level... However, the potential risk of forest fires is still very high; the patrol and guard forces are very thin, equipment for PCCCR work has been invested but is still very limited... therefore, handling and overcoming work is very difficult.

According to the review, due to the large area of ​​damaged forest that has not been recovered and fallen trees, the risk of forest fires is still possible, especially large-scale fires that can spread to adjacent residential areas. Therefore, localities and units request the Provincial People's Committee to continue to direct sectors and localities to further strengthen their responsibilities for forest fire prevention and control; have specific solutions to prevent and minimize the risk of forest fires...

Comrade Pham Duc An, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, highly appreciated the efforts of units and localities in implementing forest fire prevention and control work. However, with a large number of fallen trees after Typhoon Yagi, if the problem of clearing fallen trees and vegetation is not resolved, the risk of forest fires will always be latent, especially in the hot season.

Therefore, along with continuing to report to the Central Government for timely solutions to issues beyond its authority when clearing fallen trees; proposing mechanisms and policies for forces participating in fire prevention and fighting, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requested the Department of Agriculture and Environment to continue advising the province on plans to ensure sustainability when planting forests, focusing on planting large trees and perennial trees.

At the same time, promote propaganda and dissemination of forest protection management and fire prevention and fighting work according to Official Dispatch No. 36/CD-TTg dated April 13, 2025 of the Prime Minister and Directive No. 03/CT-UBND dated April 13, 2025 of the Provincial People's Committee Chairman. Be ready to mobilize maximum forces, means, fire fighting equipment and strictly comply with fire prevention and fighting regulations to ensure absolute safety when fighting fires.

In case of burning the ground cover, causing the fire to spread to adjacent forests and residential areas, the forest owner must be responsible according to the provisions of law. The local leader must also be responsible, implement the notification, request the forest owner to sign a commitment not to burn materials and ground cover in the damaged forest area and to process the ground cover after exploitation on sunny, dry days; only collect in a safe place and process on cool days, and must closely monitor and control to ensure absolute safety during implementation.

Continue to review and identify key areas at high risk of fire, arrange forces on duty and guard. Regularly patrol, control, promptly detect fire risks and developments to report to competent authorities to mobilize forces to respond to and extinguish fires from the beginning to limit the spread of fire. At the same time, it is necessary to continue to supplement and strengthen modern equipment, improve the effectiveness of fire prevention and control work; effectively implement additional forest planting movements, in which it is necessary to pay attention to researching plant varieties for sustainable development, expanding forest area in the province.

The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee emphasized that forests play a very important role in the environment, ecology and help develop the economy, so along with the efforts of sectors and localities, there must also be participation with high responsibility from the people. At the same time, it is necessary to synchronously deploy solutions to ensure safety and sustainable development of forest areas.

Do Phuong