Siberian wildfires shrink in past day - Rosleskhoz
MOSCOW. June 4 (Interfax) - Sixteen fires were raging across 29,607 hectares in Siberia on Thursday morning, the Siberian Federal District forestry department has said.
The day before, Siberia saw 31 wildfires across 30,455 hectares.
Twenty-three wildfires were put out on 1,537.9 hectares in the past 24 hours in the Transbaikal, Altai and Krasnoyarsk territories, the Republic of Buryatia and the Irkutsk region, including five large fires on 1,422 hectares in the Transbaikal territory and the Irkutsk region, by 709 foresters and 99 fire engines.
Most fires were caused by negligence.
In all, 3,705 wildfires have broken out on 1,080,400 hectares in the Siberian Federal District this season.
The Far Eastern Federal District reported five wildfires in the past day, and four of them were extinguished, the district forestry department has said.
"Five fires, including four new ones, were burning in the Far East yesterday. The Magadan and Amur regions had two fires each, and one was reported by the Republic of Sakha [Yakutia]. Foresters put out four fires," the report said.
Seventy-eight foresters, six fire engines, four planes and two helicopters extinguished the flames.
The Far Eastern Federal District has seen 693 wildfires on more than 187,900 hectares this season, compared to 1,687 wildfires on 445,000 hectares a year ago.
