Wildfire area in Siberia grows over 50% in past 24 hours
MOSCOW. Aug 6 (Interfax) - As of Wednesday morning, 48 wildfires over 2,830.9 hectares have been registered in the Siberian Federal District, the press office of the Russian Federal Forestry Agency department for the Siberian Federal District said.
In the past 24 hours the wildfire area grew 60% and, as of early August 5, a total of 1,723.1 hectares of forest were ablaze.
In the past 24 hours 13 wildfires at 1,073.7 hectares were extinguished in the Siberian Federal District.
A total of 620 people, 79 units of firefighting equipment and 17 aircraft were engaged in putting out the fires in the district.
The main reasons for fire outbreaks are careless handling of fire by locals and storms.
Since the fire season started, a total of 7,283 wildfires over 1,595,100 hectares were registered in the Siberian Federal District.
In the past 24 hours some 38 wildfires were registered in the district and firefighters managed to extinguish four of them and to contain ten.
A total of 1,670 people, 132 units of equipment and 12 aircraft, including nine helicopters, were engaged in putting out wildfires.
Since the fire season started, 2,091 fires at over 1.5 million hectares were registered in the district, while in 2013 there were 967 wildfires on an area a little over 695,000 hectares.
