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Area of wildfires across Russia grows by 10,000 hectares in 24 hours

The hardest hit are the Krasnoyarsk, Trans-Baikal and Irkutsk regions, the press service of Russia’s Aerial Forest Protection Service reported on Monday

VLADIVOSTOK, May 23./TASS/. The area of wildfires across Russia grew by over 10,000 hectares in the past 24 hours, amounting to over 52,000 hectares, the press service of Russia’s Aerial Forest Protection Service reported on Monday.

As many as 96 wildfires engulfing 42,286 hectares were reported in Russia on Sunday morning.

"On May 22, 2022, 57 wildfires encompassing an area of 2,087 hectares were put out in Russia. As of 00:00 Moscow time on May 23, 2022, there were 84 woodland fires engulfing 52,378 hectares, where active fire-fighting efforts were underway," the press service said.

The hardest hit are the Krasnoyarsk, Trans-Baikal and Irkutsk regions. Sizable areas of woodland are affected in the Republic of Tuva and Khakassia. The wildfires with an area of less than 1,000 hectares are reported in the Amur, Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Kemerovo, Khabarovsk and Altai regions, as well as in the Republic of Altai, Buryatia and Yakutia.

Overall, 4,439 specialists are engaged in work to battle the wildfires, assisted by 654 pieces of hardware, 70 aircraft monitoring the situation and 44 aircraft putting out woodland fires.

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