Officials from Huangchuan County in Henan’s Xinyang City recently started a small-scale forest fire after setting a tree on fire to try to get some “fun photos.” Mr. Cai, a local, caught the culprits, whose stunt burned down about 30 acres of forest. Upon being contacted by journalists on March 19, Cai said that earlier in the day he had stumbled across a group of three men and one woman standing by the forest near his home while he was washing fish in a nearby stream. After seeing the fire, Cai said that he ran over and tried to stop it, but the fire was already out of control.

Cai then showed reporters a photo taken by one of the men at the scene that depicted large flames almost three meters high. “After realizing that the fire was out of control, the arsonists tried to run, but with the help of some neighbors I managed to catch them,” said Cai. When the police arrived they took down the details of the culprits though let them go after a negotiation was reached. According to Cai, one of the men was Zhang Wu, Director of the local Tax Bureau. After this apparent “negotiation” took place, Mr. Cai had requested that the Forestry Bureau and the police continue investigations into the matter, though after further investigation, the case remains unresolved.            

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Keywords: Xinyang forest fire official forest fire Henan