Perilous Times and Climate Change
8 killed in latest wave of Russian forest fires
The Associated Press
Friday, September 3, 2010; 1:39 PM
MOSCOW -- The latest wave of forest fires in Russia has killed eight
people and injured 17, authorities said Friday.
Fires blazed across much of European Russia in August following weeks
of drought and record-high temperatures. A thick pall of smoke from the
forest and peat-bog fires covered Moscow for several days.
About 500 houses were set ablaze, the Emergencies Ministry said.
Although heavy rains helped quench the fires in much of the country,
the southern regions of Volgograd, Saratov and Samara remain hot and
dry.
A ministry statement said the new fires were fanned by high winds and
some started when the winds caused power lines to cross, shooting off
sparks.
The fires were most intense in the Volgograd region, where the deaths
occurred and 380 houses were burned in 20 populated areas. Within
hours, the fires burned down several villages in the Volgograd region.
Emergencies minister Sergei Shoigu said in televised remarks that by
Friday night the fires were "localized and extinguished."
In the Samara region, traffic on a main highway near the automobile
manufacturing city of Togliatti was diverted for hours because of fire.
The ministry said its tanker planes and helicopters had made about 60
sorties to drop water on the fires by midday.