Fire in Georgia
Fire in southern Georgia
18August 2006
A huge forest fire has been raging since 15 August in the southern Georgiandistrict of Adigeni in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region, about 45 km from the townof Borzhomi, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)on NASAs Aqua satellite passed overhead on16 August 2006. The actively burning fire is marked in red.
According to reports, the fire has already swept across 500 hectares offorest and is the largest forest fire in Georgia for the past 20 years. Hotweather is blamed as the cause of the fire, as temperatures reach up to 40° Cacross the country. Firefighters have failed to control the blaze because ofstrong overnight winds on 16 August. However, the fire poses no threat to nearbysettlements, but now the firefighters are trying to prevent the fire fromspreading to the Borzhomi-Kharagauli National Park.
The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250meters per pixel.
See also following news reports:
- Georgia Accepts Ukrainian Planes to Fight Forest Fire (published by www.civil.ge, 18 August 2006)
- Georgia Says No Need for Russian Aircraft in Fighting Fire (published by www.civil.ge, 17 August 2006)
- Russian Planes to Help Battle Forest Fire (published by www.civil.ge, 17 August 2006)
- Russia to help Georgia fight forest fire near Borzhomi (published by www.itar-tass.com, 17 August 2006)
- Firefighters, Turkish Planes Battle Blaze in Southern Georgia (published by www.civil.ge, 16 August 2006)
