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More than 63,600 hectares of forests scorched by fires in Russia

Forest fire crews have extinguished more than 90 wildfires in Russia over the past day

MOSCOW, May 11. /TASS/. Forest fire crews have extinguished more than 90 wildfires in Russia over the past day. About 50 blazes covering about 63,600 hectares were still active by Friday morning, the Federal Forest Fire Center’s press service said on Friday.

"Over the past day of May 10, forest fire crews extinguished 92 wildfires covering 25,301 hectares. By 00:00 Moscow time May 11, 54 forest fires covering 63,564 hectares were active on the territory of the Russian Federation, and extinguishment efforts were underway," the report says.

The largest fires occurred in the Amur Region and the Far East, where almost 36,400 hectares of forests were on fire by Friday morning. Blazes scorching about 2,900 hectares were reported in the Khabarovsk Region, and more than 40 hectares of forests were burning in the Jewish Autonomous Region.

Large blazes were reported in the Trans-Baikal Region, where more than 24,000 hectares of forests were scorched by fires. About 100 hectares in the Krasnoyarsk Region, nine hectares in the Bashkortostan Region and five hectares in the Buryatia Region were burning.

More than 2,600 people are fighting with forest fires, using about 500 vehicles and 40 aircraft for aerial monitoring and fire-fighting. About 380 smoke jumpers are working in the Amur Region, where a state of emergency was declared because of the difficult fire situation.