Siberian forest fire area shrinks 25 pct over past 24 hours
Siberian forest fire area shrinks 25 pct over past 24 hours
19 June 2011
published by http://en.rian.ru
Russia — The area affected by forest fires in Siberia has decreased by 25 percent in the last twenty-four hours to 5,400 hectares, the Emergencies Ministry said on Sunday.
“Satellite monitoring and aircraft surveillance has registered a total of 122 forest fires on an area of 5,420 hectares in Siberia, of which 42 wildfires have been localized on an area of 3,000 hectares,” the ministry said.
There are currently five large wildfires on an area of 3,140 hectares, including three forest fires in the Krasnoyarsk Territory and two in the Irkutsk Region, the ministry said.
Wildfires in forested regions of Russia are common during the dry and hot summer season. Most of the time, the fires start because of the careless behavior of local residents in the woods.
Wildfires devastated a number of regions in central Russia last summer, killing 62 people and leaving thousands homeless.
