Quake work, Olympics duty nets 10 Chinese firefighters title of 2008 hero

BEIJING, Dec. 23 (Chinese media) -- The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) on Tuesday hailed 10 firefighters who did rescue work after the massive May 12 earthquake in southwest China and provided security service at the Olympics as heroes of 2008.

The 10 were chosen by Internet users from among 100 candidates listed by the Fire Bureau of the MPS. There were 80,070,110 valid votes.

The official website of the bureau, 119.cn, opened voting on Oct. 25, along with more than 100 other websites, including people.com.cn, Chinese medianet.com and sina.com.cn.

Voters came from around the country, including Taiwan and the two special administrative regions of Hongkong and Macao. Netizens in Singapore and Australia were also involved, according to the fire bureau.

Li Long, a firefighter in central Henan Province, topped the list with 2,288,126 votes. He spent more than 10 days with his colleagues at quake sites evacuating 57 people from the rubble, five of whom were saved. Ma Bing, who came second, saved 17 lives in the massive earthquake.

Firefighter Huang Jianping, 34, who died as he tried to rescue a person endangered by floods in southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, was also among the heroes. He also participated in quake relief work.

It was the first time the bureau used the Internet to select its heroes.

"The Internet has a huge audience and is becoming influential," said Luo Xiuhua, a publicity official of the bureau, "Besides, the people can have their say on the issue."

Firefighters were busy this year. Along with the Olympics, China had a series of natural disasters: snowstorms during the Lunar New Year holiday, the massive quake and serious floods in southern Guangxi in September.

"The event highlights the devotion of firefighters," said Guo Tienan, the bureau's head. Guo added that the event was also an opportunity for the bureau to disseminate knowledge of firefighting.

China has about 130,000 firefighters. They rescued more than 88,398 people through Dec. 20. Nearly 63 billion yuan (about 9.2 billion U.S. dollars) worth of property was protected from damage, according to a bureau statement on Tuesday.

More than 150 firefighters were injured and 16 died in the line of duty this year, the statement read.