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Fire prevention services on alert in central Russia in connection with wildfire risk

The ministry's forces continued to fight fires and monitor the situation in central and northwestern regions

© EPA/PAULO NOVAIS

MOSCOW, August 2 (Itar-Tass) - Forces of the Emergencies Ministry in central regions are placed on alert, and a special fire prevention regime is imposed in 14 central Russian regions in connection with the complicated wildfire risk situation, an Emergencies Ministry official told Itar-Tass.

The ministry's spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky said firefighters were sent from other regions to reinforce teams fighting forest peat fires in the Tver region. The force numbered 576 people.

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The ministry's forces continued to fight fires and monitor the situation in central and northwestern regions on Friday. In the past 24 hours, aircraft dropped more than 1.6 tonnes of water onto burning forest areas, the spokesman said.

The use of aircraft helped prevent a fire from spreading to the residential site of Staroye Melkovo in the Tver Region and extinguish a fire in the Novgorod Region, he added.

Be-200 and Il-76 planes and Ka-32 and Mi-8 helicopters were used in the operations.

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