Current forest fires in the Russian Federation
Forest Fires in the Russian Federation
28 September 2016
Active fires burning in Krasnoyarsk Region and Evenkiya shown on the top map (as 28 September 2016, Source: Krasnoyarsk Joint Science Center for Satellite Remote Sensing). The accumulated locations of the fires (upper map) and size of burnt area (lower map) between 1 March and 28 September 2016 in the Amurskaya Oblast, Buryatija / Transbaikal / Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk of the Russian Federation can be seen on the lower map. The maps are generated daily by the Sukachev Institute of Forest, Remote Sensing Laboratory, Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch, Krasnoyarsk, Russian Federation. For official information on the status of wildfires in the territory of the Russian Federation see the website of the Federal Forest Service of Russia: http://www.rosleshoz.gov.ru/forest_fires/info/727
Wildfires continued to burn in Siberia. The natural-color image above, acquired on September 18, 2016, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite, shows huge plumes of smoke streaming toward the northwest. Areas in red show where MODIS detected unusually warm temperatures associated with fire. (Source: NASA Earth Observatory)
Residents complain of ‘severe carbon monoxide poisoning’ as satellite images show blanket of smoke across eastern Siberia.
Pictures show the pall of smoke in Bratsk, a city of a quarter of a million people and one of the worst-hit places from a September upsurge in first fires. Irkutsk region forestry minister Sergey Sheverda said: ‘Fires in Ust-Kut and Katanga are producing smoke in the city. Of course, people do not feel comfortable.’
Firefighters say half a dozen wildfires in Bratsk district are adding to the problem. More than 600 people are deployed on putting out the fires along with 123 units of equipment and four helicopters.
But so far more than 3,000 residents have signed a petition to President Vladimir Putin and Emergencies’ Minister Vladimir Puchkov on website Change.org under the headline ‘City of Bratsk is choking from smoke!’
‘For one month we are suffocating from the smoke,’ the petition reads. ‘The weather is hot, and there is a strong smell of burning and smoke. It is not possible to open windows, we cannot go out because we soon feel dizziness…
‘Some adults and children are in hospital with severe carbon monoxide poisoning. We are for clean air! We want to breathe. We have that right. Do not remain indifferent to our health and our future!’ Local deputies have called for firefighting planes to be deployed to put out the fires. Oleg Popov, the deputy of the Bratsk city council told: ‘There is a lot of smoke in the city any we do not see any military aircraft.’
Our earlier story ‘Oil pipes threatened by forest fires amid disputes over the scale of destruction’ shows from satellite images the scale of the wildfires across Siberia.
Recent news from and about fires burning in Russia
- Russia: Wildfires increasingly consuming siberian forests, scientists warn (published by http://www.rferl.org 28 September 2016)
- Russia: Disturbing new pictures show the raging siberian wildfires that (officially) do not exist (published by http://siberiantimes.com 27 September 2016)
- Russia: People in bratsk petition kremlin over pollution from forest fires (published by http://siberiantimes.com 23 September 2016)
- Russia: Oil pipes threatened by forest fires amid disputes over the scale of destruction (published by http://siberiantimes.com 20 September 2016)
- Russia: Masked attackers beat greenpeace firefighters in russia (published by https://www.washingtonpost.com 09 September 2016)
- Russia: ‘Russian hour’ highlights importance of russian aerial firefighting experience (published by http://www.verticalmag.com 06 September 2016)
- Russia: Firefighting ‘Euro-Squadron’ Idea (published by http://sputniknews.com 30 August 2016)
- Russia: Megafon launches forest fire protection system in Smolensk (published by http://www.telecompaper.com 14 August 2016)
- Russia: Poor Visibility, High Turbulence Behind Il-76 Crash in Siberia (published by http://sputniknews.com 05 August 2016)
- Russia: Siberia’s wildfires seen from 1 million miles away: even the tundra is burning (published by http://siberiantimes.com 23 July 2016)
- Russia: Russian wildfires put key climate resource at risk (published by http://phys.org 22 July 2016)
- Russia: Huge swaths of Russia’s forests are ablaze during what may be a record fire season (published by http://mashable.com 18 July 2016)
- Russia: Il-76 crashed due to sudden collision with the ground (published by http://www.pravdareport.com 05 July 2016)
- Russia: “They saved 1,000s of lives”: Russia mourns crew of firefighter plane that crashed in Siberia (published by https://www.rt.com 04 July 2016)
- Russia/GFMC: Letter of condolence sent to the families of the crew of the IL-76 crashed in Irkutsk Oblast, Siberia, Russia (published by the Global Fire Monitoring Center, 03 July 2016)
- Russia: Additional group of rescuers dispatched to crash site of Ilyushin Il-76 plane of Emergencies Ministry of Russia (published by http://en.mchs.ru 03 July 2016)
- Russia: Russian Firefighting Plane Disappears in Siberia (published by http://abcnews.go.com 1 July 2016)
- Russia: Russian volunteers seek a foothold as wildfires rage in Siberia (published by http://www.nhregister.com 25 June 2016)
- Russia: Almost 16,000 hectares of forest on fire in Russia (published by http://tass.ru 15 June 2016)
- Russia: Animation of satellite images shows smoke from a Russian wildfire getting sucked into a weather system vortex (published by http://blogs.discovermagazine.com 10 June 2016)
- Russia/USA: Russians visit Montana to learn firefighting systems, resources (published by www.greatfallstribune.com 07 June 2016)
- Russia: Wildfires in Russia grow 2% over past 24 hours to over 8,000 hectares (published by http://tass.ru 07 June 2016)
- Russia: Forests on fire: ‘no attempt will be made to extinguish 219 million hectares of burning trees’ (published by http://siberiantimes.com29 May 2016)
- Russia: Number of forest fires in Russia decreased by 60% over past 24 hours (published by http://tass.ru/ 29 May 2016)
- Russia: Wildfires sweep over 11,000 hectares in Trans-Baikal Territory (published by http://tass.ru 11 May 2016)
- Russia: Dozens Of Wildfires Sweep Across Siberia, Russia’s Far East (published by www.rferl.org 05 May 2016)
- Ukraine/Russia: Radioactive Chernobyl forest fires: a ticking time bomb (published by www.greenpeace.org 15 April 2016)
- Russia: Forest fires threaten wipeout for Siberian conifers as deciduous trees take over (Siberian Times, 24 February 2016) (PDF, 0.9 MB)
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Russia: Forests on fire: ‘no attempt will be made to extinguish 219 million hectares of burning trees’ (Siberian Times, 29 May 2016) (PDF, 0.9 MB)
Book Publication on the Use of Prescribed Fire in the Russian Federation (published May 2013)
Background on Wildland Fires in the Russian Federation
- Novosibirsk International Congress on Forest Fire and Climate Change (2013)
- Krasnoyarsk International Fire Management Weeks (2012 and 2013)
- Forest Fire and Smoke Episode in Western Russia 2010
- IFFN Russian Federation Special Issue (IFFN 32)
- Russia 2002 fire report
- IFFN Russian Federation 2002 Fire Special (IFFN 28)
- IFFN Reports from Russia
- Fire Research Campaign Asia-North (FIRESCAN)
Bibliography on fire in ecosystems of boreal Eurasia
One of the results of the first international fire science conference in the Russian Federation (1993) was the publication of a monograph on fire in boreal Eurasia, including some selected contributions on boreal North America. The literature cited in the monograph contains numerous publications which in many cases are not easily accessible. To facilitate literature search the bibliographical sources are provided by topic (chapter).
Goldammer, J.G. and V.V. Furyaev. 1996. Fire in Ecosystems of Boreal Eurasia. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 390 p.