Russian Far East wildfires swell, ravaging more than 20,000 hectares

MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/. The number of forest fires in Russia’s Far East has swelled from 56 to 61 over the past 24 hours, with the area engulfed by the blazes having surpassed 20,000 hectares. Most of the wildfires are raging throughout the Sakha Region, the Forestry Department of the Far Eastern Federal District reported on Tuesday. "The area engulfed by wildfires over the past 24 hours was slightly over 20,000 hectares, the bulk of the forest fires occurred in Yakutia (14,100 hectares) and the Amur region (5,900 hectares). As of Wednesday morning, 22 fires have been extinguished, work is in progress to extinguish another 61," the department said. Blazes have also been registered in the Magadan, Khabarovsk regions and Chukotka Autonomous Region. A total of 376 people, 45 units of equipment and six aircraft have been involved in the firefighting effort. Inferno comes to Yakutia According to Yakutia’s Department of Forestry Relations, most wildfires burning in remote and difficult to access areas have occurred because of thunderstorms. While the wildfires in the area currently encompass an area of about 14,000 hectares, in 2016 they engulfed 250,000 hectares. Elena Volosyuk of the Fobos weather center earlier informed TASS that the temperatures in Yakutia are 10-13 degrees higher than the average, hence the increasing number of forest fires in the region’s south. "We fear that the area engulfed by wildfires will expand this weekend due to rising temperatures in most parts of the republic. In some areas the temperatures will reach 39 degrees (Celsius)," Deputy Head of the Department of Forestry Relations, Julustan Khon, told TASS. A total of 1,208 wildfires with a total area of 298,600 hectares have been tearing through the Far East since the beginning of this year. During the same period in 2016, 1,003 forest fires were registered in the region. However, at that time they covered a larger area - more than 1 million hectares. Read more