838 thousand hectares of forest continue to burn in Russia – Avialesokhrana

There are 217 forest fires on the territory of Russia, an area of ​​838 thousand hectares is burning. About it reported in “Avialesokhrana”.

According to the agency, over the past week, 443 forest fires were liquidated on a total area of ​​more than 255 thousand hectares. The extinguishing involved about 5 thousand people, 745 pieces of equipment and 20 aircraft. Another 42 aircraft are involved in monitoring the fire situation.

The largest number of forest fires were extinguished in the republics of Karelia and Yakutia, as well as in the Irkutsk and Leningrad regions.

Now the fire hazard season is open in all regions of Russia. A special fire regime has been introduced in 63 regions, and an emergency regime in nine.

Direct damage from wildfires in Yakutia alone has reached 1 billion rubles since the beginning of the year, counted in the Ministry of Emergency Situations in the republic. During this time, 1227 natural fires were recorded in the region, at the moment more than 666 thousand hectares of forest are burning there. The Ministry of Emergency Situations added that most of the fires occur due to dry weather and thunderstorms, and the reason for the occurrence of a fire is careless handling of fire.

Greenpeace expert Grigory Kuksin told The Insider that the situation with fires in Russia not only remains grave, but has become worse in recent years, and the main reason for them is the human factor.