The Cost of Carelessness

The Cost of Carelessness

Thanks to a careless Chung Yeung Festival grave-sweeper (or a discarded cigarette, though that's not likely), more than 450 hectares of Tai Lam Country Park burned to the ground over 46 hours before more than 600 firefighters and volunteers extinguished the blaze.

Not only will the government have to spend $2 million planting new trees to replace the estimated 66,000 that were destroyed, the ecosystem will take 80 years to recover. It will take 20 years for the trees alone to regrow.

Warm, dry weather and brisk winds from the stationary offshore Typhoon Cimaron helped spread the blaze in numerous directions. At this time of year it's rare for typhoons to make landfall on China's coast; Cimaron would have been of great help in quenching the flames had it blown in.

Hong Kong hill fires are difficult to put out because the remote and steep terrain means they can only be battled using helicopters and ground crews. The Government Flying Service used a record two million liters of water during this operation.

The editorial leader in the local rag hit the nail on the head:

Year after year, before the Ching Ming and Chung Yeung festivals, government announcements on radio and television warn people not to leave behind fire seeds while performing their tomb-side rituals. Yet, hardly a year goes by in which hill fires are not a problem. What has differed year to year is the scale of damage. The drier the weather, the worse it is.

It is time that new thinking is adopted to tackle an age-old problem. Public education has obviously failed, and a more targeted approach is called for. As tombs of indigenous villagers are the obvious causes of hill fires, efforts to address them must start with this group. The government should talk to the Heung Yee Kuk, which represents rural interests, to work out innovative solutions.

One option may be to require every traditional burial ground to install a proper sacrificial stove for burning paper offerings. The stove should make it easier to control the burning and reduce the risks of blazing offerings igniting nearby bushes. It would also help if suitable devices were built at the site to collect small amounts of rain water. This would be handy for putting out fires accidentally started by grave-sweepers. Properly designed and built, the stoves and rain collectors should blend in with the tombs' surroundings and enhance their aura. The cost of building them does not have to be high. In any case, it would be a worthwhile investment to obviate the need to spend much more to fight hill fires and replant burned out areas.

For these and other possible solutions to work, the indigenous villagers must wholeheartedly embrace them. Officials will have to display tact and sensitivity in tackling the issue. On their part, the villagers should know that it would be in their own interests to solve the problem.

And if they can't learn to respect fire, they should be banned from using it.

Image © SCMP