About 700 firefighters putting out wildfires in Yakutia

YAKUTIA. Aug 9 (Interfax) - About 700 firefighters are putting out wildfires on over 75,000 hectares in Yakutia, the Yakutia government press service said in a statement.

"Currently, eight forest fires are being fought on 75,100 hectares. Out of that number, three forest fires are raging in difficult to access remote territories. The operation involves 689 firefighters and 34 pieces of hardware," the statement said.

Yakutia has reported 39 forest fires on 271,000 hectares this season, versus 178 fires on nearly 3.5 million hectares a year ago.

Antonov An-26 Tsiklon weather reconnaissance aircraft from the Aerial Forest Protection Service and Yakovlev Yak-42 planes of the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring will be working in the Ust-Maisky district on Tuesday. A Beriev Be-200 plane from the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry will join in if the smoke subsides and the weather improves.

The first wildfires of the year were reported from Yakutia in mid-May. Yakutia and the Khabarovsk Territory declared an interregional wildfire emergency at the federal level.