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Airplanes redirected from Tomsk to alternate fields over fire smoke

The forest fire situation in the Tomsk Region is deteriorating

TOMSK, July 25 (Itar-Tass) —— The arrival of six airplanes in Tomsk is delayed over a lower visibility down to 80 meters due to a thick smoke from the forest fires, which are raging in the Tomsk Region, the press service of the emergency situation department in the Tomsk Region told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

Two airplanes en route from Moscow to Tomsk (belonging to the air companies UTair and Transaero) landed at the alternate airport Tolmachevo (Novosibirsk), an airplane from Gelendzhik (the air company Alrosa) is waiting for a better visibility in Tomsk at the Kemerovo airport. Meanwhile, the flights to Tomsk of the air companies S7, Aeroflot and Orenburg Airlines were delayed in Moscow. Respectively the flights of all these airplanes from Tomsk are also delayed for an indefinite period of time.

The Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that the smoke over the regional centre is spreading from the Tomsk Region, where the forest is on fire 20 kilometres west of the settlement Itatka. The flames have sparked up back on July 22, but the smoke reached the regional centre only on July 24, when the north-eastern winds began blowing. “This fire on 110 hectares has been localized, emergency workers continue to work there,” the rescuers said. The fire-fighting teams and fire engines are enough for fire-fighting efforts, the ministry reported. There is no threat that the fire will creep to the settlement.

The forest fire situation in the Tomsk Region is deteriorating. Nine new fires blazed up in various districts for the past day and 15 fires were localized, a source in the regional emergency situation department told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. However, 30 fires were raging on more than 7,800 hectares in the region in the morning on July 25.

The Tomsk weather forecasting centre reported that the abnormal hot weather will remain in the region on July 25-27 with the highest air temperature of 30-35 degrees Celsius.

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