Great Black Dragon Fire: A Chinese Inferno

by Harrison E. Salisbury

Considering the global implications of the disaster, Salisbury describes the devastation and ecological and environmental consequences of the 1987 fire in Manchuria that destroyed an area the size of England.

Genres: History

180 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1989

About the author

Harrison E. Salisbury (November 14, 1908 - July 5, 1993) was a long time reporter and editor at The New York Times.

Earlier in his career he had worked for the United Press, which he joined after earning a B.A. at the University of Minnesota in 1930. He began his career in journalism as a part-time reporter for the Minneapolis Journal during 1928-29.

Although he served in many different positions and places during his long career at the Times, Mr. Salisbury is perhaps most famous for his work as Moscow correspondent, covering the U.S.S.R. during the early years of the Cold War. After serving as the Times' Moscow Bureau Chief from 1949 to 1954, he returned to the U.S. and wrote a series of articles for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1955.

He spent a great deal of time concentrating on Asia during his later years at the Times, covering the Vietnam War as well as many different issues and events having to do with China.

Reviews

[Einar Jensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Harrison Salisbury may be an expert on China and the Soviet Union, but he should have left the story of the May 1987 Black Dragon wildfire to someone else. His lack of knowledge about fire behavior and fire history made for a cringe-filled reading experience that made me doubt non-fire comments.

The Black Dragon Fire started May 6, 1987, in northwest China south of the Heilongjiang (Black Dragon) River which is known better as the Amur. A novice sawyer was blamed, but the author still believed the cow myth for the Great Chicago Fire so I’m not sure blaming the sawyer is reliable. Regardless of the method heat mixed with fuel and oxygen, a wildfire started that would churn through 3 million acres (4,697 square miles) of land in China. It destroyed towns, killed people, and left thousands homeless. Salisbury claims embers didn’t cross the river, and that embers from Russian fires didn’t blow south into China, but I’m doubtful of those claims given that embers don’t stop blowing at imaginary lines drawn on maps. During the same period, wildfires in Russia north of the Amur burned 9-15 million acres.

Salisbury’s book did record personal accounts from survivors, but it had more than one hint of stroking China’s government response to the wildfire. Portraying that response negatively could have restricted his future access to officials; the historian in me struggled to accept his comments at face value. He also was limited to what Chinese officials told him as they protected their families and professional trajectories.

I hope someone else writes about this wildfire armed with better knowledge of fire science.

[Ted · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was aware of the of the Yellowstone fires of 1988 that burned about 1.2 million acres. I knew absolutely nothing of perhaps the largest forest fire known to man that burned more than 18 million acres in China and Russia in 1987. An interesting and enlightening read.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Account of a huge forest fire in northern China in 1987 that went almost unheard of in the rest of the world at the time.