Irkutsk region authorities promise to extinguish peat fires by February 1
Irkutsk region authorities promise to extinguish peat fires by February 1
08 January 2016
published by http://tass.ru
Russia– The authorities of the Irkutsk region (southeastern Siberia) promise to cope with peat-bog fires in Usolsky district by the beginning of next month. “The situation is fully under control. The fires will be extinguished completely by February 1. Thats the deadline, maybe we will be able to do that until that time,” the first Deputy Governor of the region said at a meeting in Usolsky district. Alexander Bitarov added that thanks to the use of modern methods of extinguishing fire, firefighters managed to reduce the area of fire by half – to 6 hectares. Meanwhile, Deputy Emergencies Minister Vladimir Stepanov has set the task to concentrate forces and means of a single emergency prevention system in the district to achieve effective results. “The fires affected everyone last year, both holiday-makers and local residents,” he said. “It is important not to repeat the situation that emerged last year, when no measures were taken to minimize the hotbeds of risk. To extinguish fires in Usolsky district it is necessary to use additional engineering equipment taking into account the current situation.” Besides, he pointed to the need tostart timely preparations for the fire danger period of 2016. “Before the beginning of the 2016 fire danger period it is necessary to plan the irrigation work on raising the ground water level in the areas of peat-bog fires in Usolsky district. Also, it is necessary to arrange for the creation of temporary dams at drainage canals to keep the meltwater,” Stepanov added.
