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First two Il-76 planes take off from Krasnoyarsk to extinguish wildfires in Siberia

Almost 2.8 mln hectares of forest were affected by fires in hard-to-access terrain in Russia on July 31

KRASNOYARSK, August 1. /TASS/. The first two Ilyushin Il-76 military transport aircraft have taken off from Krasnoyarsk airport to extinguish wildfires. Each of them is carrying 42 tonnes of water, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Thursday.

"The first two Il-76 planes are on their way to extinguish fires. They are heading to the Evenk autonomous district located 507 kilometers northeast of Krasnoyarsk," the ministry said.

The planes arrived in Siberia from the Orenburg and Ulyanovsk regions.

According to Russia’s Aerial Forest Protection Service, almost 2.8 mln hectares of forest were affected by fires in hard-to-access terrain in Russia on July 31. The largest wildfires were registered in the Sakha (Yakutia) Region where 1.1 mln hectares were burning, the Krasnoyarsk Region (over 1 mln hectares) and the Irkutsk Region (about 700,000 hectares).

The firefighting effort involves 2,700 people, 390 pieces of equipment and 28 aircraft. A state of emergency over wildfires is in effect in the Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk regions, two districts of Buryatia and one district in Yakutia.