23/7 Tass 56
KHABAROVSK, July 23 (Itar-Tass) — Efforts to stabilize the wildfire situation in Russia’s Far East are failing so far, although fire fighting operations involve some 2,000 men and 182 units of hardware.
In the past 24 hours, fire fighters have extinguished 10 fires on an area of 1,968 hectares, but seventeen new fires have broken out.
“As of today, there are 44 wildfires in the Far Eastern federal district. The fire area has expanded by more than 900 hectares in the past 24 hours to reach 6,000 hectares,” a spokesman for the local forestry department told Itar-Tass on Saturday.
According to the spokesman, the gravest situation is in the republic of Yakutia, where fires have spread over 3,800 hectares of forests and 1,701 hectares of non-forest lands. Fire are also reported in the Khabarovsk territory, in the Amur region, and on Sakhalin.
Since the beginning of this year’s fire season, wildfires have destroyed more than 499,900 hectares, including 375,700 hectares of forests. In Yakutia, fires have damaged 419,000 hectares, including 327,000 hectares of forests.