Damage from wildfires decreases from 24 bln rubles last year to 15 bln - Khloponin
MOSCOW. Nov 22 (Interfax) - Russian emergency services and regional authorities managed to considerably reduce the size of and economic damage from wildfires this year, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Khloponin said.
"A total of 9,200 wildfires were registered this year, almost 1,000 fires fewer than last year. We have a 10% reduction from 2016. This summer, we registered a considerable decrease in the area of wildfires, 44%," Khloponin said during a conference call on the outcome of the fire season on Wednesday.
"The damage from wildfires also went down considerably, from 24 billion rubles to 15 billion rubles. These figures are, without a doubt, very positive," he said.
According to Khloponin, the work of regional authorities and interdepartmental cooperation considerably promoted successful firefighting work.
The 2018 budget envisages almost 2.5 billion rubles of additional funding for air patrolling and increasing the number of forest inspectors. "It is planned to provide 1.4 billion rubles of extra funding for air patrolling and 1 billion rubles for increasing the number of state forest inspectors," Khloponin said.