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Area of wildfires in Russia reached almost 50 000 hectares over the last 24 hours

The state of emergency has been declared in many regions of Siberia

© Yuri Smityuk/TASS

MOSCOW, July 7. /TASS/. The area of wildfires in Russia has grown by 26% over the last 24 hours to 49,600 hectares, with most forest blazes registered in Chukotka, the Russian Aerial Forest Protection Service said on Thursday.

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"As of 12am Moscow time on 7 July 2016, a total of 109 wildfires was active on the territory of the Russian Federation on the area of 49,656 hectares, including one wildfire in the forest on the area of 20,250 hectares (Chukotka Autonomous District)," the service said.

A total of 18,400 hectares of forests is ablaze in the Irkutsk Region, another 3,400 hectares -in the Magadan Region, 2,800 hectares - in Buryatia, and 1,200 hectares - in the Krasnoyarsk Krai.

Moreover, wildfires cover over 2,000 hectares in the Zapovednoye Podlemorye natural reserve, 400 hectares in the Lena Pillars national park, five hectares in the Sokhondinsky natural reserve in Zabaykalsky Krai and three hectares in Verkhne-Tazovsky natural reserve in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District.

Over the last 24 hours, almost 3,300 people were involved in firefighting efforts, and they managed to extinguish 56 wildfires on the area of 800 hectares.

The state of emergency has been declared in the Irkutsk Region, Zabaikalsky Krai, two districts of the Krasnoyarsk Krai, 13 districts of Buryatia, one district of Yakutia and one district of Chukotka.

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