Fire lookout stays vigilant on Inner Mongolia mountaintop

HOHHOT－While most Chinese soaked up the festive vibes as they celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival, an occasion for family reunions, Zhong Jingfeng canceled his celebrations once again and stayed deep in the mountains in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region to watch for smoke.

Zhong, 45, has spent 17 years as a fire lookout on Okliet Mountain, a 1,520-meter peak in the Inner Mongolia section of the Greater Hinggan Mountains.

The Greater Hinggan Mountains, dotted with forests, grasslands and wetlands, serve as an important ecological barrier in northern China.

However, lightning often sparks wildfires in the mountains. Statistics show that lightning strikes have ignited more than 60 fires in the forests this year. The best way to stop a fire is to catch it early. As the "eyes in the forest", lookouts are the instrument of choice.

The Inner Mongolia section of the Greater Hinggan Mountains has 253 lookout towers staffed by 819 fire lookouts.

Every morning, Zhong gets up at 6 am, observes the area every 15 minutes and reports any smoke or fire threats to the local forestry authorities every hour.

The tools at his disposal－a faded map, a pair of binoculars and a walkie-talkie－have gone virtually unchanged.

"I am like a drone for the firefighting team," Zhong said. "If I misjudge the location of the fire, they have to travel greater distances. But any delay would be catastrophic."

During a forest fire in 2008, fire crews thought the fire had been contained, but Zhong noticed heavy smoke by gazing outward from the mountaintop.

"The fire must have spread, but the team couldn't see it in the woods," he recalled. The crew adjusted their actions and finally put out the fire, based on Zhong's timely advice.

Zhong's wife Sui Fengyan joined her husband in April to help him overcome his loneliness living in such a hard-to-reach place.

"I didn't think much of my husband's job before," she said. "After half a year with him on the mountain, it occurred to me that his job was very demanding."

Overseeing the forest is tough. The average temperature on the mountaintop can drop to -10 C. In addition, facilities and equipment including houses and solar panels have to be fitted with cables and ground anchors due to strong winds.

There are no roads on Okliet and it takes two hours to travel from the foot of the mountain to the peak. Every few days, the couple goes halfway down the mountain to fetch water, with a full bottle weighing 30 kilograms.

The most difficult aspect of life on the mountain is living alone for most of the year, away from people, roads and modern conveniences. Every spring, Zhong ascends the mountain to take on the lookout job and he leaves before winter comes.

"My son has gone to college. I miss him a lot," he said.

In recent years, due to the influence of climate change and other factors, the number of fires has increased, but the area of fire-ravaged forests has been declining, said Wang Zhiwen, an official with the forestry bureau of Alongshan township, which administers Zhong's lookout station.

Wang attributes the progress to the forest fire warning and monitoring system as well as the dedication of the lookouts.

While some people argue that technology can take the place of the lookouts, Wang disagrees.

"Technologies such as drones will increase the accuracy of fire monitoring and reduce human exposure to risk, but human monitoring also counts, especially in bad weather and under special geographical conditions," he said. "They are complementary."

As the sun descends, casting new shadows on the surrounding mountains, Zhong remains in his lookout station, gazing outward.

The mountaintop living conditions have been improved in recent years. Zhong's house has been wrapped in insulation, and phone signals allow him to chat with his son.

"Life up here is getting better. I feel grateful to my wife and son," he said. "I will continue to guard the forest and won't let them down."

Xinhua