Terrible catastrophe in the Urals region: entire villages burned down

Woods have been on fire in the Urals for several weeks. Lately, more than 400 houses (some sources say that 478 houses) have been burned down. In village Chashinsky 362 houses were burned, 8 people died of exploding balloons with natural gas. They all were taken by surprise: the fire driven by stormy wind, spread on the village very quickly. 

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People were running away from the fire and jumped into the river to save their lives. In several minutes, the village was annihilated. Earlier, nearby village Iletskaya was burned down. In Sverdlovsk region, the area of fires in woods is much bigger than in Kurgan region, in Tugulym District 35 cottages burned down in villages Potaskuevo and Komarovo. In the spring and summer of 2004, 724 fires in woods took place in the Urals, while for the 18 days of may in 2004, 703 fires were already registered.