GFMC: Russia: Russia Puts Out 53 Forest Fires, Registers New Blazes, 24 April 2001
Russia: Russia Puts Out 53 Forest Fires, Registers New Blazes
Source: ITAR-TASS News Agency, 24 April 2001
By Aleksei Filatov
Forest protection personnel and volunteers extinguished 53 forest fires in the past 24 hours, but another 25 blazes were registered in the country over the same period, mostly in the Siberian, far eastern and Volga federal districts.
Experts said fires often break out because of carelessness. There have been 235 fires in the three designated federal districts this year, which destroyed 3,700 hectares of forest, the press service of the National Agency of Natural Resources told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
Taking part in the fire-fighting effort are more than 600 people, 129 tractors and specialized vehicles, and a dozen of planes and helicopters.
Forest protection officials took additional measures to tighten control over taiga, reinforcing posts on forest roads and using aviation for monitoring. These measures decreased the number of forest fires three-fold, compared with the same period last year.
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