Russia: 3000 firefighters fight serious forest fires in Siberia

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Forest fire in Siberia (archive photo 2020)

Photo: Denis Bushkovsky / ITAR-TASS / imago images

In Russia, areas of more than 500 square kilometers of forest are on fire, which roughly corresponds to the area of ​​Lake Constance.

Around 3,000 firefighters are fighting the 75 forest fires that are currently underway.

Also in use: 28 fire fighting aircraft.

The authorities said the flames had spread again compared to the previous day.

However, there are also successes in the extinguishing work: on Saturday alone, fires were extinguished on a total of 32 square kilometers.

"The number of fires is falling, as usual in June, because fresh grass is growing, for example," said a spokesman for the environmental organization Greenpeace.

However, the all-clear cannot yet be given.

As in the previous year, Siberia is mainly affected.

For example, the area of ​​fire is spreading on Lake Baikal in Siberia and in Yakutia in northeastern Russia, the spokesman reported.

"This year the authorities are taking much stricter measures to prevent and fight fires." There have been many fines and some people have even been arrested.

Many regions want to downplay the extent of the fires

According to the Russian government on Sunday, 2.7 billion rubles (the equivalent of 31 million euros) will be used to fight the fire.

A large part of the money is intended for the extinguishing work, a small amount for monitoring fires.

According to the Russian environmentalists, many forest fires have been triggered by negligence, for example because campfires got out of control or dry grass was lit.

This time there are slightly fewer fires than in previous years.

However, the fires in Russia have been going on for months.

"The official data are still very different from reality," said the Greenpeace spokesman.

The environment ministry complained a few days ago that some regions were downplaying the extent of the fires.

Reported information did not agree with the analysis of satellite data.

In the largest country in the world in terms of area, devastating fires repeatedly occur in the summer months.

They are often located in remote areas and generally do not threaten villages and towns.

However, the people in the affected region suffer from toxic smoke.

beb / dpa