Mongolia Gets Pledges of $400,000 to Help Battle Fires

Pledges of international aid to help Mongolia fight fires ravaging its steppes and mountains poured in Saturday, while citizens blamed their government for moving too slowly to battle the blazes.

In response to last week’s official calls for help, foreign governments and world agencies pledged more than $400,000 in money, medicine and supplies to help fight the fires that have killed at least 17 and injured 65, a U.N. Development Program report said.

By Saturday, Australia, Japan, Britain, the United States and several international agencies had promised money and equipment, the report said.

But none of the desperately needed supplies requested by Ulan Bator, including water cannons, flamethrowers, engine-driven extinguishers and parachutes, had arrived by the weekend.

China, itself scarred by huge forest and pastureland fires in its Inner Mongolia region, pledged $30,000 on Friday for the victims of the fires, the New China News Agency said.

About 12,000 people have been fighting the fires, including nomads, town residents, soldiers and schoolboys, many of whom have been forced to battle the blazes with tree branches and pieces of clothing.

Lack of fireproof clothing, communications equipment and basic tools such as hoes and shovels has hampered efforts to control the fires, officials said.

The fires have made 700 people homeless and destroyed about 31,000 square miles of forests and pastureland, officials said. About 6,000 cattle, the mainstay of Mongolia’s nomadic herders, have been killed.

Meanwhile Saturday, nearly 400 aftershocks were recorded in China’s Inner Mongolia region after a strong earthquake that struck a day earlier. The death toll climbed to 15 people, the New China News Agency said. More than 200 people were injured.

The 6.4-magnitude tremor destroyed dozens of houses Friday when it hit about 335 miles northwest of Beijing, a State Seismological Bureau official said.