A fire which raged about 18 hours in a residential area in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was put out early Saturday with no casualties reported, Xinhua quoted fire fighters as saying. More than 1,000 fire fighters put out the blaze at around 5 a.m. Saturday in a residential area in Genhe City in the northern Greater Hinggan Mountains forest zone, said Yang Haixia, a press officer with the fire brigade of Hulun Buir City. The fire broke out at about 11:20 a.m. Friday in the residential zone. It ignited lumber owned by a forestry company and spread to a forest nearby. No casualties were reported, but some 154 houses were burned down and 390 people, most of them forestry staff, were affected. Local authorities had arranged temporary shelter for them. The cause and damage of the fire are still being investigated.
