- MOSCOW: Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said wildfires have engulfed nearly three times more territory than last year’s blazes, though there are no signs yet that villages are under threat.
A website statement posted Tuesday said almost 618,000 hectares are ablaze throughout the country, up from about 214,000 hectares this time last year.
The statement says the worst-affected areas are the Siberian provinces of Yakutia, Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk, where hot weather has sparked fires in hard-to-reach territory.
Last year’s fires, which came during the country’s hottest summer on record, wiped out thousands of homes in hundreds of villages, and killed at least 50 people. They were made worse by a protracted drought.
No deaths have been reported in this year’s fires.
