¡¡¡¡HANOI, April 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Fires that have been raging in Vietnam's U Minh Thuong National Park for the last 10 days destroyed more than 4,000 hectares (ha) of the country's virgin cajeput forest, the Vietnam News reported Friday.

¡¡¡¡The destruction of 200 ha of the 20-year-old cajeput trees has affected a 60 billion Vietnamese dong (4 million U.S. dollars) project planned to commemorate outstanding historic achievements of heroes in the U Minh Thuong Base during the country's national resistance war against enemies, causing spirit and material irreparable damages.

¡¡¡¡Temperatures in the heart of the U Minh Thuong forest had soared to 50 degree Celsius, and reached thousands of degrees in the smoldering muddy coal layers.

¡¡¡¡According to local experts, one of the reasons that efforts to extinguish the fire have failed for the past three days is that the cajeput forest has a thick coal layer, about 0.5 to 1.5 meters,that can catch fire easily and burn for very long period.

¡¡¡¡Unlike forest fires in other areas, it is very difficult to spot the fire early because the roots and lower trunks of the cajeput forest have caught fire even as their canopy remains green.

¡¡¡¡At present, Vietnam is making great efforts to save 4,000 ha ofnewly-planted trees from the fires in the U Minh Thuong National Park.

¡¡¡¡U Minh Thuong National Park with 8,000 ha of virgin forest is ranked the world's second richest and largest mangrove forest after the Amazon forest. Enditem

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