Some 5,900 hectares of forest burn down in Far East over past 24 hours, most fires in Yakutia
KHABAROVSK. July 17 (Interfax) - Almost 80 wildfires raged in the forests of the Far East in the past 24 hours, with most flashpoints in Yakutia, the forestry department of the Far Eastern Federal District said on Monday.
A total of 5,900 hectares of forests burned down in the past 24 hours, the report said. The entire area covered by fires is located in Yakutia, the report said. Fires were also registered in the Khabarovsk Territory, in Kamchatka, in Sakhalin and in the Magadan region.
A total of 944 people and 11 units of ground-based equipment and three aircraft were employed in fighting the fires.
Three fires had been extinguished by Monday morning, another 71 fires remain burning in Yakutia, one fire remains in the Khabarovsk Territory, one in the Kamchatka Territory, and also in Sakhalin and in the Magadan region.
According to the forestry department of the Far Eastern Federal District, 1,585 wildfires have occurred in the Far East on an area of 1.14 million hectares since the beginning of the 2017 fire season. Most of the area affected by the fires is located in Yakutia, where fires covered an area of 653,700 hectares, the Amur region (196,700 hectares) and the Khabarovsk Territory (168,000 hectares). In the same period in 2016, 1,087 wildfires were registered on an area exceeding 1.38 million hectares.