Forest fire is one of the world’s most severe natural disasters and public emergencies, with the characteristics of abruptness, rapid spread, difficult to control and highly disastrous. According to the statistics, the average number of annual forest fires in China from 1950-2004 was 13,253, the annual average forest area being affected was 679,000 ha and the annual number of injuries and deaths caused by forest fires was 606 (including 92 deaths and 514 injuries. The "5.6" major disaster of forest fires occurred in 1987 was a turning point, during the period of 17 years (1988 to 2004) after the point forest fire occurred on average 7,264 times annually, with 81,000 ha of damaged forest, 209 deaths and injuries, decreased by 54.4%, 91.4% and 73.5% respectively compared to the period of 38 years (1950 to 1987) before the point (Table 9-2). Impacted by the atmospheric circulation and monsoon climate, the fire risk period in China\’s northern and southern regions is different. Forest fire prevention period in northeast and Inner Mongolia forest regions ranges from mid-March to mid-June in spring, with the critical period from April to May; forest fire risk period in autumn starts from mid-September and ends in mid-November, with a highly risky period in October. The fire risk period in south and southwest forest regions is from mid-November to the end of May next year, with February to April as a critical period. Northwest forest regions (mainly in Xinjiang Province) have the fire risk period of April to October, a critical period from July to September. In the special case of particularly drought climate, forest fires also occur in the summer, and the loss would be even more serious.

In accordance with the "Forest Law" and "Forest Fire Prevention Regulations", the forest fire prevention adopted the administrative leader’s responsibility system for governments at all levels and followed the principle of "prevention first, active elimination", establishing a relatively complete institutional system for fire prevention and a forest firefighting brigade, setting up 3 national storage centers and more than 4,200 local storage houses for fire prevention materials, building more than 12,000 fire watchtowers, 325,000 km firebreak roads and 1.058 million km biological fire prevention forests and 811,000 km fire isolation zones; building two Aviation Forest Guard Center (Central Station) and 22 terminals, forest aviation protection area covers the key forest regions of northeast, Inner Mongolia and southwest regions; the armed forestry police has the dual leadership under the Headquarter of Armed Police and the State Forestry Administration, which has one Command Headquarter, with the jurisdiction of 7 General Corps in Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Sichuan, Yunnan, Tibet and Xinjiang, and a command school, mainly undertaking the tasks of forest fire prevention and fire fighting.