Siberian experts to fight forest fires in the USA

The Western Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk is sending is best firefighting specialists to the USA to join their American colleagues in the effort to extinguish forest fires in Idaho, Utah and Montana, reported the directorate of the Krasnoyarsk forest-protection aviation center on Friday.

The trip was organized in the framework of an international program that envisages the setting up of quick-reaction groups responsible for combating forest fires in different countries.

The firefighting skills of Siberians and particularly the way they were air-dropped from helicopters into the taiga, were praised by John Bushman, the chief of a US-based educational center for fighting forest fires, who conducted a test and selected 20 firefighters to embark on the trip to the USA.