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Emergency situation regime imposed in Urals regions because of wildfires and heat

The overall fire area exceeds tens of thousands hectares

YEKATERINBURG, July 17 (Itar-Tass) —— The wildfire situation has dramatically deteriorated in Russia’s Urals federal district, with state of emergency imposed in a number of regions, a spokesman for the Sverdlovsk region governor told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

The overall fire area exceeds tens of thousands hectares. Moreover, an extremely hot weather has set in in the region.

“The difficult fire situation forces municipal authorities to take emergency measures. Thus, special fire regime has been imposed in 46 municipalities and districts. An emergency situation regime has been imposed in the Sosvinsky, Gagarinsky, Tavdinsky, and Taborinsky districts and in the town of Revda. Emergency situation regime might be imposed in the Alapayevsky district as well,” the spokesman said.

In South Urals, wildfires have swept across 286 hectares of forests, a spokesman for the Chelyabinsk emergencies administration told Itar-Tass. “Since the beginning of the fire season, more than 1,000 forest fires on an area exceeding 7,000 hectares have been extinguished. From July 13, a special fire regime was imposed in the region. People are banned to go to forests and make fires there,” the spokesman said.

An emergency situation regime is in force in the Khanty-Mansi autonomous areas. Forest fires have spread to one more district – Oktyabrsky – in the area, where forest fires have been reported, a spokesman for the local nature resources department told Itar-Tass. According to the spokesman, a total of 62 wildfires have been registered in the Khanty-Mansi area during the day. Twenty one fires on an area of more than 2,500 hectares were put out. Now, there are 41 fires, of which eight have been contained. There are no threats to populated localities.

Emergency situation regimes have been imposed in a number of districts in the Kurgan region. Thus, according to a spokesman for the regional emergencies administration, abnormal heat has killed crops on an area of 252,000 hectares, or 18 percent of the entire lands under crops. Similar situation is reported in neighboring Kazakhstan, where crops have also been destroyed because of the hot weather, the spokesman noted.