The areas affected by wildfires in Russia grew 56% from 2,300 hectares to almost 3,600 hectares over the past 24 hours, the aerial forest protection service Avialesokhrana reported today.
As of today, 73 wildfires continued raging across Russia.
The Tomsk region in Western Siberia was one of the hardest-hit areas, with almost 1,000 hectares burning there. Some 218 hectares of forest and 500 hectares in the Verhne Tazovsky nature reserve are on fire in the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous area.
Fires are raging on the area of almost 400 hectares in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk Territory and 303 hectares in the Irkutsk region. Some 225 hectares are burning in Chukotka.
The firefighting effort involved almost 2,000 people over the past 24 hours. The personnel helped to extinguish fires on the area of 612 hectares, while almost 1,100 hectares of forest were burnt.
A state of emergency is in force in one district of the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous area and one district of the Irkutsk region.
Source: TASS
