Rescuers evacuated 60 people from a village in Russia’s southern Volgograd region as the residential area is threatened by an approaching forest fire, a spokesman for the local emergencies ministry’s department said on Tuesday.
A forest fire, some 1.5 km from the village of Kamenny Buerak, appeared at about 10:00 a.m. local time covering an area of 2.5 hectares. By late afternoon, the fire had engulfed over 20 hectares of forest.
“Sixty people, including 14 children, were evacuated from the village,” the spokesman said adding that all evacuees were currently accommodated in four schools in the Dzerzhinsk district of Volgograd.
Russia is trying to prevent the developments of last summer, when an enormous heat wave in the country’s European part caused massive wildfires, which killed 62 people and left thousands homeless.