TASS, August 24. Five communities in the Ryazan Region are endangered by the ongoing forest fires, the region's Acting Governor Pavel Malkov told Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting on combating wildfires held by videoconference on Wednesday.

"We now have five settlements facing danger from the fire. All of them have been encircled, but fire protection is being provided. The blaze is unremittingly being fought but where there was obvious danger, local residents were evacuated or temporarily left to their relatives or were taken to provisional shelters," he explained.

As the head of the region noted, now the key blaze there covers about 12,000 hectares and the area that’s currently alight is about 180 hectares. Meanwhile, the weather is extremely unfavorable: 33-degree heat and strong winds up to 18 meters per second in the area where the fire is spreading.

"Now, in total more than 9,500 firefighters are involved in extinguishing the blazes. Unprecedented firefighting power has been assembled. The Emergencies Ministry, the Federal Agency for Forestry, regional and municipal services, and other regions also provided help. The main part of the group, which is now involved in extinguishing [the blaze], was formed with the help of the Moscow government. Among them came prefectures and Moscow organizations with all the necessary equipment. Once again, I thank Moscow Mayor Sergey Semenovich Sobyanin. Also, 15 aircraft are involved in firefighting: seven airplanes and eight helicopters, they are working in the most stressful are and in the most problematic spots", the regional head added.

The first forest fire in the Ryazan Region erupted on August 7, the second one broke out a day later, with the blazes multiplying as the days went on. On August 17, the smell of burning and smog appeared in Moscow and some areas of the Central Federal District because of the natural fires in the region. A state of emergency was introduced in the Ryazan Region.