On 4thDecember 2019, a hill fire was spotted on the hilltop of Sze Pai Shek Shan at Tai Lam. Due to the dry weather (with a minimum relative humidity of only 32%) and the prevailing winds during the northeast monsoon, firesburnt from afternoon to the next morning. Visible from far away at night, the 700-meter raging flame aroused discussion and attention among citizens.
As The Conservancy Association (CA) is managingsome of the plantation areas around Ma On Kong at Tai Lam Country Park, we went to the hilltop of Tai Lam for a site visit after the hill fire subsided. All plantation areas of the entire ridge were burnt. The land was all black, and the air was filled with the smell of coking coal. It is believed that even the soil was burnt to ashes at places where the fire was the fiercest. A small amount of wood was still smoking. Trees no matter their sizes carried burn marks. Two-thirds of our plantation enrichment area was burnt. Some saplings might be lucky enough to escape from direct fire, but their leaves had dried up after surrounded by such a high temperature. Another plantation area, a mixed forest planted by us 12 years ago, also did not escape the rampant fire.
Hill fire is the biggest enemy of the forest. According to figures from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department(AFCD), there were 23 hill fires recorded inside or threatening country parks in 2018 (1). According to the figures from the Fire Services Department(FSD), there were 1,045 vegetation firesin 2018 (2). All hill fires in Hong Kong are human-caused. A hill fire may be started from a burning cigarette or flamesset in place by grave sweepers. In case of dry weather, when the fire spread up to the mountain, it will be quickly out of control. We picked up more than 10cigarette butts and a cigarette boxon the way up the mountain for the site visit. If the burning cigarettes had not been handled carefully before being thrown away, there would be a chance to cause a hill fire.
Forests are one of our precious natural resources and it contains the habitats of many wild animals. Chinese has an idiom that said, “it takes ten years to grow trees but a hundred years to educate people.”A plantation area requires at least 10years of dedicationto plant and care carefully before it becomes a forest. However, it only takes one night for the fire to destroy anentire forest, just likethis plantation area. We hope that everyone should not make a fire or smoke when wandering in the woods. We also encourage grave-sweepers to use flowers instead of “Joss Papers”, and never make fire near graves. Preventing hill fires is definitely more important than reforestation and hence we need to care forevery tree growingsafelyin the countryside.
(1) Figures from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department
https://www.afcd.gov.hk/tc_chi/country/cou_lea/cou_lea_use/cou_lea_use.html?fbclid=IwAR1_tB934XNPTkVhd0gokqIQ_K-DUtMnxeFTLNC2Bpn9irhNBHaGS2faD44
(2) Figures from the Fire Services Department
https://www.hkfsd.gov.hk/chi/publications/statistic/
Plantation area planted in 2007
What the plantation area looked like in 2018
Many cigarette butts werefoundon our way up the mountain
Saplings smoked by the hill fire
