Over 800 Houses Destroyed by Forest Fires in Central Russia

Forest fires in two central Russian regions burned down over 800 houses and killed at least five people in the last 24 hours, the emergencies ministry said on Friday.

Photo: Over 800 Houses Destroyed by Forest Fires in Central Russia

Over 270 houses were destroyed in the Voronezh region and 547 houses burned down in the Nizhny Novgorod region, RIA Novosti reports.

More than a thousand residents in areas that were likely to be reached by the fire were immediately evacuated to a safer area. To prevent the forest fires from further spreading to other areas, the emergency ministry has dispatched more firefighting units as well as sixteen aircrafts and helicopters.

Temperature in Moscow has been steady at 95 degrees in the past five weeks causing the country’s capital to suffer the worst drought to ever happen in thirty years.

Due to the high temperature, peat fires continue to pose various threats on the economic and ecological aspects of the country. In addition, peat fires cause the capital to be covered with heavy smog, Execte News informs.