Schoolboys who started forest fire let go with impunity

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Schoolboys who started forest fire let go with impunity

DALI, Yunnan Province, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Six primary schoolboys who unintentionally started a fire that engulfed a forest reserve in southwest China and took 10,000 fire fighters to put out will not be prosecuted, local police said on Sunday.

The six boys now go to school as usual and they are comforted, educated and supervised by school teachers and their parents, said Yang Fudong, head of the the forestry public security bureau of Dali on Sunday afternoon.

As Chinese law sets the minimum age of criminal responsibility at 14, the six boys, one 12 and the others 11, were released on Thursday after education by the police, said Yang.

Officials from the Dali prefecture asked the parents of the six boys to care about them and not to beat or scold them lest the incident leaves a scar on them.

The fire spread over 233 hectares in Yunnan Province after it was started on Thursday morning, and fire fighters extinguished it at 5 p.m. on Friday, government sources said.

More than 10,000 people, including soldiers, forestry police and local residents, joined in the fire-fighting operation, they said.

Fire-fighters are still mopping up smoldering pockets on Cangshan Mountain, part of the Cangshan and Erhai National Nature Reserve, a well-known scenic spot.

The six schoolboys who started the blaze were fourth-graders and fifth-graders at Longquancun Primary School in Xiaguan town, of the Bai Autonomous Prefecture of Dali, a spokesman with the local public security department told Xinhua.

One of them, a boy surnamed He, was watching TV at home when a Xinhua reporter visited him Sunday noon.

"When we were playing on the mountain behind the Jiangfeng Temple, I grasped a handful of grass and lit it with a lighter I kept in my pocket. I used the lighter to ignite the firecrackers during Spring Festival," He said.

Force five wind soon spread the fire.

"We were really scared. Three of us were so frightened that they ran away. Two ran into the temple to report it to adults. I stroke the fire with branches but it didn't work. I could do nothing but looked helplessly as the fire raged up the mountain," he said.

"He is a usually a good boy and I always tell him not to play with fire. I could never imagine he has made such a big trouble.", said He's mother, crying.

"Although the boys are exempted from criminal responsibility, we will look into the responsibilities of their guardians, their parents, the forest keepers, and the town and the school administrators," said Li Xiong, deputy chief of the Bai Autonomous Prefecture of Dali.

"We'll strengthen fire-prevention and law education, especially among the youngsters," Li said.

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