MOSCOW, June 18. /TASS/. The Russian emergencies minister has come to Ufa, Bashkortostan, to oversee an all-Russia field training event aimed at helping firefighting agencies do their job better, saying that the economic damage from fires across Russia remains high.
"The trend in the fire situation across the Russian Federation shows that despite the improvement of the overall situation, their (fires) number still remains high. Every year thousands of people die as a result of fires, and the economy suffers significant material damage," the press service quoted Alexander Kurenkov as saying.
The training session will take five days; it involves not only employees of the Ministry for Emergency Situations, but also of other interested federal agencies, as well as business people. According to the ministry, the participants will discuss ways to improve supervisory activities and develop promising areas to control fire safety.