Airborne infrared scanner is one of installations for detecting forest fire during the huge forest fire in Daxinganling Mountains. It recorded information of the fire through thick smog, and reported immediately to the fire-fighting headquarters on fire sites and information of fire stretching. During the fire, information couldn't be reported by common visual methods, but information provided by airborne infrared scanner became the basis for fighting headquarters to deploy the fire-fighting forces. This paper presents briefly principles and installations of infrared scanning for fire surveying. It places the emphasis on basic methods and results of application. The results not only broadened application scope of infrared remote sensing technology, but also developed infrared method for fire surveying.