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Forest fire area in Russia grows by 4,500 hectares per day — Forest Protection Service

As of Sunday morning, 129 forest fires were burning in Russia on an area of 19,657 hectares, the press service of the Federal Aviation Forest Protection Service reported

© Svetlana Pavlova/TASS

VLADIVOSTOK, May 16. /TASS/. The total area of forest fires in Russia has increased by 4,500 hectares over the past day, the press service of the Federal Aviation Forest Protection Service reported on Monday.

As of Sunday morning, 129 forest fires were burning in Russia on an area of 19,657 hectares.

"Over the past day on May 15, 2022, 120 forest fires were extinguished in Russia on an area of 7,353 hectares. As of 00:00 Moscow time on May 16, 2022, 105 forest fires were burning on the territory of the Russian Federation on an area of 24,179 hectares. The work is underway to extinguish these fires," the statement said.

Forests are burning in the Krasnoyarsk region, where 12,509 hectares are on fire. Also, vast areas of forests are burning in the Republic of Khakassia (2,836 hectares), Irkutsk (2,009 hectares) and Tyumen (1,443 hectares) regions, and the Republic of Tyva (1,390 hectares). Relatively small areas of less than 1,000 hectares are engulfed by fire in Kurgan, Tomsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Kemerovo, Jewish Autonomous and Sakhalin regions, the Republics of Altai and Buryatia, as well as in the Trans-Baikal Territory.

Forest fires are continuing to burn in specially protected natural areas. In Tuva, there is a fire in the Ubsunur Hollow Nature Reserve on an area of 1,869 hectares. In the Krasnoyarsk region, 70 hectares are on fire in the Sayano-Shushensky Reserve, in the Kemerovo region - 50 hectares in the Shorsky National Park.

The fire hazard season is open in 80 regions of Russia, the emergency regime was introduced throughout the Kurgan region, in four districts of the Krasnoyarsk region, one district of the Republic of Tyva and in two districts of Khakassia. A special fire regime was introduced in 45 regions of Russia.

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