Wildfires

Wildfires - Africa

There are now approximately five times as many wildfires burning in Africa than in the Amazon, according to images captured by NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) technology last week.

The affected countries include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Cameroon and Angola in the heart of Central Africa. The individual blazes are confined primarily to the Savanna, drawing concern because of their close proximity to forests in the Congo Basin, an area made especially vulnerable by deforestation caused by industrial activity in the region.

The Savanna wildfires pose a threat to the world's second-largest tropical forest, which spans 500 million acres and provides a home to more than 2,000 species of animals and roughly 10,000 species of plants. The MODIS images documented more than 6,902 fires in Angola and 3,395 fires in the DRC, while picking up on just over 2,000 in Brazil.

Wildfires - Russia

Wildfires have engulfed 43,300 hectares in Russia’s Siberia with more than 90 fires still active in the region, according to the Russian Aerial Forest Protection Service.

"As of 12am Moscow time on 27 August 2019, 91 wildfires were registered on the territory of 43,335 hectares in Russia, with active firefighting efforts underway," the press service told TASS.

Most wildfires are raging in Krasnoyarsk, Kamchatka, Chukotka regions. Forest fires are also being reported in Irkutsk, Amur, Magadan, Yakutia and Zabaikalye regions.

The firefighters have extinguished nearly 36 wildfires in the past 24 hours.