Due to the massive wildfires, Russian authorities have declared a state of emergency with the National Nuclear Research Center in the city of Sarov. This step is necessary because the fire is spreading in the Nizhny Novgorod region and additional forces may be deployed to extinguish the fire, said the administration of the city of Preserve. This is where Russia’s nuclear research center is located.
Fire hazard locations in many other regions of Russia as well. The region of Yakutia in north-eastern Russia was particularly badly affected. There was a state of emergency in the Sakha Republic, as in a total of eight regions. In the Yakut village of Bajas-Kajuel, more than 30 houses were burnt. People were evacuated safely. According to officials, the fire is spreading rapidly due to high wind speed and many villages including Sengar Basti, which has oil reserves, are in danger.
In the Siberian regions of Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk, entire cities were engulfed in smoke, as can be seen in pictures on Russian state television. Around 7,000 firefighters were deployed across the country.
According to information received from the authorities, about 3.5 million hectares were on fire across the country on Sunday – this corresponds to the area of Baden-Württemberg. Environmental organization specialist Grigory Cooksin green Peace About the worst wildfire in the history of Russian weather observation spoke on the Echo Moskvi radio station.
“It has to do with increasing climate change. The season of wildfire risk is getting longer, droughts are more frequent, last longer and more intense,” said Greenpeace forest expert Alexey Yaroshenko. He criticized the lack of laws, funds and personnel to protect the forest.
Greenpeace is calling for more forest dwellers and volunteers to be deployed and to educate citizens about fire safety. Environmentalists repeatedly complain that many fires are caused by people and – despite warnings about the danger of wildfire – campfires are lit in dry forests.
In the region bordering China around the great Amur River, authorities have been battling flooding after heavy rains. Among other things, more than 80 kilometers of roads and six bridges have been inundated and 24 villages have been cut off from the outside world, said Alexander Selenin, Minister of Transport for the Amur Region. The district administration announced that a state of emergency had been imposed in Svobodnensky District.
