Fire can help people in many ways. But it can also be very harmful. Fire can make water hot and house warm, give light and cook food. But fire can burn (燃烧) things, too. It can make trees, houses, animals and other things catch fire (起火). If some people can't run away from fire, it can kill them. This happens in every country every year.
Sometimes big fire can burn forests. A month ago, a large forest fire broke out in Yunnan Province. It lasted nearly half a month. The forest in Heilongjiang Province and the grassland in Inner Mongolia caught fire in May, 2006. After more than ten days' fight, over 30,000 people and soldiers put out (扑灭) the fire at last.
Nobody knows clearly when people began to make fire, but there are many interesting stories about the first time a man or a woman started a fire. One story from Australia tells about a man who went to the sun and brought fire down a long time ago. Today people know how to make a fire with matches (火柴). Children sometimes like to play with them. But matches can be very dangerous. The match can burn a piece of paper and then it can burn a house. A small fire can become a big fire, and destroy many things. Fire kills many people every year. So you must be careful with fire.
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