Siberian wildfires shrink thrice over past 24 hours
NOVOSIBIRSK. July 9 (Interfax) - Siberian wildfires shrank threefold, from 267.6 to 86.8 hectares, over the past 24 hours, the Siberian Federal District forestry department said on Tuesday.
Ten forest fires are burning in the Krasnoyarsk territory, it said.
The firemen have confined one wildfire to three hectares and put out five fires on 237 hectares in Buryatia, the Krasnoyarsk territory and the Irkutsk region.
Eighty-nine firemen and smokejumpers and 14 aircraft extinguished the blaze.
'Thunderstorms were the main causes of the fires," the department said.
A special fire safety regime has been enacted in seven districts of the trans-Baikal territory and two districts of the Krasnoyarsk territory. There is a fire emergency regime in one district of the Irkutsk region.