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3,200 hectares of forests burnt in Russian Far East оver past day

The wildfires were reported in five out of nine regions in the Far Eastern Federal District on Monday

KHABAROVSK, June 18 (Itar-Tass) —— Sixteen out of 52 taiga fires, which burnt down 3,226 hectares of forests, were put out in the Russian Far East over the past day, a source in the Forestry Department in the Far Eastern Federal District told Itar-Tass on Monday.

Some 882 people, 87 machines and 16 aircraft were dispatched for fire-fighting.

The wildfires were reported in five out of nine regions in the Far Eastern Federal District on Monday. Eleven fires on over 910 hectares were reported in the Khabarovsk Territory and seven fires in Yakutia. The forests are also blazing in the Amur Region, Sakhalin and Chukotka.

The forest security services reported that “most fires in the taiga were triggered by dry thunderstorms in June; frequently the fires sparked up in hard-to-reach taiga areas, where the fire-fighters cannot be brought quickly.”

From the start of the fire-prone season 1,354 fires broke out in the Far Eastern Federal District and the fires burnt down 100,800 hectares of woodlands.