Wildfires rage on 22,000 hectares in Siberia

About 16,000 hectares were afire last day. Firefighters extinguished 86 outbreaks on 3,207 ha. But the hot weather, dry thunderstorms and carelessness of local residents caused new outbreaks.

The worst situation is in the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Irkutsk Region, where 12 large blazes are raging on 17,735 ha, the regional EMERCOM centre told Itar-Tass. Two of the fires are localized on 2,780 ha.

There are 11 large fires in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. One large conflagration is burning in the Irkutsk Region.

A total of 2,724 people from EMERCOM (Emergencies Ministry) and forestry services and volunteers are fighting the blazes with the use of 493 units of engines and aircraft. Water bombers of the Emergencies Ministry's Siberian regional centre dropped 120 tonnes of water on burning forests over the past day.

The work also continues on the ground. During the day, 301 raids were carried out in forests to detect cases of violations of the fire prevention regulations, and 47 such cases were reported. There are 1,527 mobile and stationary posts to bar accesses to forests and monitor the situation.

Specialists have ploughed a total of 21.5 km of lines around residential sites to protect them from fires. A total of 18,423 km were ploughed since the beginning of the period.

According to reports from the Far East, the wildfire areas decreased by 3,100 ha over the past 24 hours. The number of fires has decreased from 25 to 18, the regional forestry department reported to Itar-Tass.

Wildfires were burning on 7,800 ha in the Far East Federal District by Saturday morning. Blazes continued raging in Yakutia and the Khabarovsk Territory.

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