Area of forest fires in Siberia keeps increasing

Over the past 24 hours the area of the ignition of forests in the Siberian federal district doubled and has already surpassed 1,500 hectares. As operations officer on duty of the Siberian Regional Centre of the Emergencies Ministry said on Monday, over 400 paratroopers and several dozens of units of different hardware have been sent to combat fire. The local inhabitants are also taking an active part in the struggle against it. According to the Emergencies Ministry centre's data received from a man-made satellite of Earth, 700 hectares of forests in the Republic of Tuva alone, and 330 hectares in the Novosibirsk Region are engulfed in fire. Large seats of ignition have been registered in the Chita and Kemerovo Regions, as well as in southern districts of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The dry and warm weather which has set in in Siberia makes for the spread of fire.