Thousands of people are fighting violent forest fires in Russia

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Firefighters fight serious forest fires in Yakutia, a republic of Russia

Photo: Aerial Forest Protection Service / picture alliance / dpa / TASS

Thousands of people are fighting violent forest and wildfires in Russia, mainly in eastern Siberia.

In the Russian republic of Yakutia (Sakha) alone, there are 196 fires in the forests, where an area of ​​288,460 hectares is affected, the authorities said.

That is more than the size of Luxembourg.

The state of emergency applies in the sparsely populated region.

The environmental protection organization Greenpeace sent volunteers to the area, also to protect the national park with the famous Lena rocks, which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2012.

In the difficult to access region, the situation was particularly bad this year, it said.

Over 4700 people are deployed against the fire

Nationwide, the forest protection authority listed 264 forest fires and an affected area of ​​325,526 hectares.

More than 4,700 people, hundreds of vehicles, 25 planes and helicopters are used to extinguish the fires.

In many places, however, the work had been stopped because no human life was threatened.

In addition, the cost of extinguishing is higher than the damage caused by the fire, it said.

The Russian state television recently showed how the fires raged on huge forest areas and emergency services fought against the flames. The fires also spread smoke in the city of Yakutsk, the authorities said. MI-8 helicopters are in use to extinguish the fires in the area, said forestry officer Vladimir Ivanov, according to a statement.

Greenpeace complains that the situation in Russia has worsened due to climate change.

Every year, in the largest country in the world in terms of area, with its taiga forest belt, which is important for the climate, huge stands of trees are ablaze.

In Yakutia, the fires broke out earlier than usual this year, said Greenpeace.

"They develop faster and are more dangerous than in previous years." The reasons are unusual heat waves and long drought.

However, only some of the fires break out due to lightning strikes.

Most of the fires are caused by humans, it said.

ene / dpa