Seventeen forest fires extinguished within a day in Russia

Within the past twenty-four hours the firemen from the State Forest Protection Service of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources extinguished seventeen forest fires. "The area covered by fires in one day amounted to more than 2,000 hectares," RIA Novosti was told in the press service of the ministry.

At the present time more than 1,100 people, 106 pieces of all kinds of machinery and 37 aircraft are combating fire," added the spokesman for the press service.

According to the data of the Ministry of Natural Resources, at the present time there are 139 fires in the Russian forests which are under the ministry's authority.

The most difficult situation is in the Far Eastern (97 fires) and Ural (26) Federal Districts.

As the spokesman for the ministry said, "the main causes of the forest fires in the country are thunderstorms and careless campers and picnickers." The ministry's data show that altogether over 22,500 fires have appeared in the Russian forests since the beginning of the fire dangerous season.