YAKUTSK, September 29. /TASS/. Wildfires in Yakutia, in the region's northern districts in particular, continue growing due to climate changes, and the local authorities need to build up investments in coping with this phenomenon, Grigory Kuksin of the Fire Prevention Center told TASS.
In 2023, Yakutia's direct damage from wildfires is estimated at more than 347 million rubles ($3.5 million), the regional emergency situations authority said.
"Yakutia needs to increase significantly the funds used to cope with wildfires. Since things are not going to be better. The situation is changing across the globe, and especially, of course, in the northern, Arctic regions - the situation there is getting worse and tenser. Therefore, it is necessary to increase in advance the numbers of people and equipment for this work," he said.
In the conditions of stable anticyclones, the region must build up the numbers of firefighters, equipment and aircraft that will deliver people to fires. "Clearly it's been great to use reconnaissance aircraft, to generate precipitation. But this is not a remedy, this type of aircraft works only in conditions of mature clouds, when there is already enough moisture. In the conditions of an anticyclone, it is impossible to cause artificial precipitation," the expert explained.
Fires in controlled areas
As of September 25, Yakutia is the leader among the Far East regions in terms of the number of wildfires - 1,232 since the year beginning, and the Khabarovsk Region takes the second position - 1,154. The total area affected by fire in Yakutia has exceeded 1.8 million hectares.
"Yakutia is a most difficult region in terms of extinguishing wildfires. Due to the huge size and the fact that the region's most areas are hard-to-reach. Unfortunately, the [current fire] season is certainly worse than that of last year. Last year was rather an exception, quite good. However, the season does not differ much from long-term average rates," he continued.
The difference from last year is mainly due to weather conditions. "There has not been any noticeable increase in funding, the shortage of funds remains. Generally speaking, over recent years Yakutia has managed to increase a little [the amount of funds allocated for fighting fires], but this is still much less than such a complex region requires," he said.
About 80% of fires are in controlled zones, the Fire Prevention Center said. "Those are the fires where there are not enough people, equipment, fuel. This is true not only for Yakutia, but for all the Far Eastern districts," he said.
The expert noted certain measures to combat fires, but, he said, it is difficult to assess their effectiveness. "We can see that work is underway, people are being relocated, the reconnaissance planes are flying, but in the end it turns out that the majority of fires are the fires that no one has extinguished," he added.
Fire prevention
The expert believes that, in addition to increasing investments, the authorities need to pay special attention to fire prevention.
"Most fires, even in such complex and large regions like Yakutia, can be prevented. Many fires are human-sparked - first of all, by used economic practices, traditional burning of pastures. The climate is changing so fast that the technologies of using fire become very dangerous. Practically all over the world, it is impossible to keep under control the situation where people burn pastures, where they burn woodcutting waste," he said.
Agriculture and forestry must seek different technologies. "Un-extinguished bonfires, tourist bonfires, hunting bonfires are also an important factor. Normally, in rains, they do not cause wildfires. However, in extreme weather conditions, any abandoned bonfire or a cigarette butt mean a potentially large fire, which in these conditions is too expensive to extinguish. And therefore, special attention must be paid to prevention," he said.
Russia has not used fully the potential of volunteers in fighting wildfires, he continued. "It is impossible to have a full-fledged state fire protection team at such vast territories, in every village, in every district. Clearly, small settlements around the world rely on local residents who extinguish forest and steppe fires. This is a regular practice. But in Russia, of course, it is only emerging," he told TASS.
The requirements to municipal authorities to develop voluntary fire protection have not been supported by financial resources. "At an early stage, of course, local residents may be the first to appear on the spot, to come to rescue. Russia does have a potential for this phenomenon, but there are also many limiting factors. In the long run, this is something that may improve the situation with fires. To do this, we need to offer conditions, and this is a no less important direction than just to buy planes, helicopters and bulldozers," the expert said.
Fire season
Yakutia is among the country's most fire-prone regions. The total area of forests is 256.1 million hectares (83.4% of the territory). On August 25, the emergency regime in forests of Yakutia and the Khabarovsk Region was lifted. The emergency regime in Yakutia's all forests, which was announced on July 3, was lifted on September 6. The fire season officially ended in Yakutia on September 15.