KUBINKA, August 19. /TASS/. The total area that forest fires are covering in Russia stands at about 5 million hectares, First Deputy Minister of Emergencies Alexander Chupriyan said on Friday at a plenary session of the 3rd Firefighting and Rescue Congress.

"Emergencies related to wildfires occur in many Russian regions as a result of high temperatures and a dearth of precipitation. The area of such fires is vast. To recap, it was 10 million hectares last year. That is almost half the amount this year, but the season has not ended yet," Chupriyan noted.

The human factor, for example, dry grass incineration, is the main cause of wildfires. Dry thunderstorms rarely ignite grass and woods. "There was a rare case of a fire in the Arctic in 2021, when forest tundra started burning at a temperature of 15 degrees below zero," the official pointed out.

The number of emergencies is mounting due to climate change. This also causes heavier and more serious floods.

More than 6,000 people have died and almost 830,000 have faced emergencies [in Russia - TASS] over the past 10 years," Chupriyan noted. Man-made emergencies account for more than 90% of the total death toll, he added.