Wildfires

Wildfires in Siberia

Russian Emergency Situations Ministry uses 30 aircraft to extinguish wildfires in Far East, Siberia spokesperson Alexander Drobyshevsky said on Saturday.

As of Saturday morning, in Russia continue 103 wildfires at 27,412 hectares, including big 26 wildfires in the Far East and in Siberia," he said.

On Friday, 147 new fires began at 12,509 hectares, and 150 were extinguished at 5,437 hectares. Emergency situation has been introduced in the regions with most complicated situations - in the Amur region, in the Maritime and Baikal territories, he said.

The space monitoring has located 1,587 thermal points, where 1,362 thermal point were confirmed later on. Over 800 specialised vehicles, 30 aircrafts and 3,247 people are involved in extinguishing of the wildfires. Besides, 100 rescuers with knapsack fire extinguishers are working on the sites.

"On Friday, the aviation made 17 flights, 107 droppings of 1,175 litres of water."

EMERCOM is using in the Far East and Siberia planes Be-200 and Il-76, and helicopters Mi-8 and Mi-26.

More than 100 forest fires were registered in the Far East during the day.

In the Far East region 111 forest fires were registered per night, 48 of which were eliminated, according to Department of Forestry.