MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/. Firefighters are combatting intense blazes in the Zabaykalsky National Park as well as in the Barguzinsky and Dzherginsky Nature Reserves in Russia’s Buryatia Region, the local forestry department reported on its website on Friday.
It said that firefighting efforts were underway to extinguish four wildfires in the above-protected areas. "The total area of the blaze in the protected zones is about 789 hectares," the agency said, adding that "over 130 forest service specialists and paratroopers are engaged in battling the blaze."
Twenty-seven more specialists were dispatched to the Dzherginsky Nature Reserve.
Over the past 24 hours, firefighters put out 11 blazes in Buryatia engulfing an area of 1,600 hectares. More than 309 specialists assisted by 32 units of equipment were utilized in the effort. Another 65,000 hectares of woodland are burning in region’s four hard-to-access districts. These fires are not being dealt with because, according to the regional authorities, they don’t pose a threat to local communities or economic facilities, while the damage from them will be less than from the possible cost of the efforts to combat these blazes.
Special fire safety rules remain in place in the Buryatia Region, eastern Siberia.