Rain extinguishes Primorye's largest forest fire

Rain on Tuesday night has extinguished the largest forest fire in Primorye, Russia's Far East.

The most dangerous fire in the mountainous taiga in the north of the region has been put out by the rain, the dispatch office of the local forest protection airbase informed RIA Novosti.

On Monday the fire covered over 1,200 hectares of forest. Dozens of people were fighting the fire and failed to extinguish it for several days.

At present there are several dozens of forest fires in the Far Eastern federal district, eight of them are in Primorye, according to the Russian Emergency Ministry's local department. The fires do not threaten towns or industrial objects.

Usually fires in this region begin in late April as warm weather sets. The main cause of all these fires is picnics with fires on weekends. Fire is spread quickly due to the dry and warm weather in the south of the region.

Several hundreds of forest fires are annually registered in Primorye forest farms, their damage amounting to tens of millions of roubles annually ($1 equals approximately 29 roubles). The figures, however, do not take into account all the damage inflicted, as the fires destroy the ecological system on the whole and cause health problems of the population.

Trying to prevent mass burning-out of forests, the authorities resort to extreme measures. For example, in some districts administrations prohibit population to visit forests.

Owners of recreation and children's camps are recommended to get rid of flammables. Heads of villages have to control fire extinguishing in the adjacent forests.

This year all district administrations have adopted plans on forces and means to extinguish fire, have organized training for foresters and set up 70 mobile fire groups.

The situation will improve only by the end of June, when rains begin, the local emergency ministry reports.

According to global experience, real forecast of the fire situation can be made only five days in advance, but the reliability of such forecasts does not exceed 50 percent.