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Most of taiga fires extinguished in Siberia

The areas of burning forests in Siberia decreased more than 30 times over the weekend

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

ULAN-UDE, May 28 (Itar-Tass) —— The areas of burning forests in Siberia decreased more than 30 times over the weekend.

Three of the eight fires were extinguished on Sunday. The rest five are burning on more than 150 ha, and four of them are localized, a source at the Russian Emergencies Ministry's Trans-Baikal regional department told Itar-Tass on Monday.

Last Friday, afire were 5,000 hectares of the taiga.

At present, there is no threat to residential areas. A total of 146 people with more than 30 machines are fighting the fires.

Since the beginning of the spring, 744 wildfires on 387,000 hectares have been reported in the Trans-Baikal Territory. The state of emergency has been in force in the region since late March.

Only one forest fire remains in the Far East – in the Khabarovsk Territory.

Fire-fighters extinguished ten blazes in Yakutia, the Khabarovsk Territory, Kamchatka and the Magadan Region over the past 24 hours, the Far East Federal District's forestry department reported to Itar-Tass.

Since the beginning of the season, 32,373 hectares of forests have burned in the Far East. They were caused mainly by human carelessness and dry thunderstorms in May.

The situation has stabilized with the prompt operation of fire-fighting forces and additional measures taken by authorities in regions. A state of emergency was imposed in four districts of the Amur Region. A special fire prevention regime with forest access restrictions for the population is imposed in the Amur Region, the Primorye Territory, the Jewish Autonomous Region, two districts of the Kamchatka Territory and two districts of the Khabarovsk Territory.

All the forest fires are extinguished on Kamchatka, the press service of the Emergencies Ministry's regional department said on Monday.

The largest blaze swept 120 hectares of the forest 25 km away from the settlement of Koryaki in the Yelizovo district. It was put out by Sunday evening, May 27. About 30 people fought the blaze. A special Mi-8 helicopter was used in the operation. It carried out about 20 water dropping flights over the burring forest.

A fire was extinguished on 80 hectares seven km away from the village of Severnye Koryaki in the same district. About 60 people, including specialists from the Emergencies Ministry's regional service, fought the blaze.

Six wildfires have been reported on the peninsula this May. About 240 hectares were ablaze.

High fire hazard classes are declared in three districts of the region – the fifth (highest) in the Milkovo district and the fourth in the west of the Ust-Kamchatsky district and the east of the Tigil district. The risk will remain in the areas till May 31, department sources noted.

The emergency services recommend the population not to go to forests, take fire prevention measures, not to set fires and not to burn dry grass.

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