Russia’s Il-76 plane protects Chile’s oldest city from wildfires

MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/. The Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft operated by the Russian Emergencies Ministry has protected from wildfires two populated localities in Chile, one of which is considered to be that country’s oldest city, the ministry’s press service informed TASS. "Over the past 24 hours, Russian Emergencies Ministry pilots made four sorties to put out fires dropping 168 tonnes of water on burning woodlands and thus preventing the fire from spreading towards the inhabited locality of Navidad and the inhabited locality of Concepcion," the press service said. Concepcion is one of the oldest cities in Chile founded in 1550 with a populated of more than 230,000 people. The city, which has the largest number of universities in that country, is Chile’s university center. "The firefighting efforts of the Russian Emergencies Ministry’s Il-76 plane are carried out in close coordination with the ground services involved in extinguishing wildfires. High efficiency of the use of firefighting aviation is achieved thanks to this," the ministry said. The Il-76 aircraft capable of dropping 42 tonnes of water on a fire site at a time are used for extinguishing wildfires in the most difficult areas. The Russian plane arrived in Chile at the request of the Chilean side, as the wildfire situation in that country is complicated. A state of emergency has been declared in seven regions (Coquimbo, Valparaiso, Metropolitana, O’Higgins, Maule, Bio Bio and Araucania). According to the Chilean National Office for Emergency, the wildfires have destroyed the Santa Olga populated locality (the Constitucion commune), over 6,000 people have been evacuated. Read more