More than 10 million hectares of forest are burning in Russia, where even larger areas have already burned than in previous years, the country’s authorities have announced. Massive fires devastate huge areas of forest in Russia every year, often in remote and sparsely populated areas, but in some cases they also threaten populated areas.
Almost 6,000 fires since the beginning of the year
“Today we have more than 500 fires in the country’s forests, covering an area of more than ten million hectares,” Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov said during a live televised meeting with President Vladimir Putin. Since the beginning of the year, “we have recorded almost 6,000 fires from natural causes on an area of more than 35 million hectares,” he added.
He noted that although the number of fires has decreased compared to last year, “the surface area of the burnt areas, on the other hand, has increased by 1.5 times”. In total, more than 6,000 people have been mobilized to fight the fires.
Fires are occurring earlier and earlier
Forest fires have been starting earlier and earlier in recent years, especially due to heatwaves or premature heatwaves. According to Environment Minister Alexander Kazlov, this year they started a month and a half earlier than usual due to a combination of “unnatural heat and storms”. The worst-affected regions are Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East, especially Yakutia, a sparsely populated region that often suffers from weather disasters.
Environmentalists criticize the Kremlin’s policy of dealing with forest fires: it often prefers to ignore them if the cost of extinguishing them exceeds the estimated cost of the damage.
Sources: APE-MPE, AFP