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WILDFIRES IN SIBERIA AND FAR EAST

Buryatia sees seven-fold increase in wildfire area since 2018

In a hard-to-reach mountainous area in northern Buryatia, firefighting efforts are not taken in view of no threat for local settlements and economic facilities

© Donat Sorokin/TASS

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Wildfires area in Russia’s Yakutia drops below 1 mln hectares

MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/. More than 500 wildfires on the area of 168,000 hectares have been registered in Siberia’s Buryatia since the beginning of the fire season in March. This is seven times as much as in 2018, the republic’s forestry agency said on Monday.

"A total of 534 wildfires on the area of 168,000 hectares have been registered in the republic since the beginning of the fire season. Over the same period in 2018, 329 wildfires were registered on the total area of more than 24,000 hectares," the agency said.

On Sunday, eight wildfires raging on nearly 950 hectares were being extinguished in the republic’s west and north. Four of them have been localized and another three have been put out. Special firefighting measures have been introduced.

Some 20 fires on the area of 46,500 hectares have been reported in a hard-to-reach mountainous area in northern Buryatia. There is no threat for local settlements and economic facilities, and firefighters are not battling the blazes since spending on this effort would exceed the projected damage, according to regional authorities.

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