133 Fires Sprang Up in Russian Forests in the Last 24 Hours

The last 24 hours have seen 133 new fires in Russian forests, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry's information department told RIA Novosti on Wednesday. Currently there are a total of 343 seats of forest fire all over the country. On Tuesday the fire embraced 26,280 hectares.

According to Emergency Situations Ministry, most fires happened in two regions of southern Siberia, the Chita region (158 fires, with 11 of them related to the category of big ones) and Buryatia (63 forest fires, out of which there are 7 big ones), as well as in the Far East, the Khabarovsk territory (53 fires, 2 big ones).

5,265 people, 998 fire engines and 42 aircraft were involved in extinguishing the forest fires.

Over 3,500 forest fires covering an area of over 100,000 hectares have been registered since the beginning of the year, the Emergency Situations Ministry reported.