235 Forest Fires Registered In Russia Since Year's Start

Since the start of this year, 235 forest fires, razing to the ground a territory of 3,649 hectares, have been registered in Russia, reports the Natural Resources national information agency. Last year, the situation with forest fires was even tenser: over the same period, 838 fires raged in Russia, destroying 8,344 hectares of forests. In the past 24 hours, 78 fires have occurred in Russian forests, with 53 of them extinguished by now. Fire has destroyed 409 hectares of forest land. The largest number of fires are on in the Jewish autonomous region (7), Khakassia (5), and the Chita region (3) in eastern Siberia. Small fires have been detected in the Volga and Urals regions.

Visit www.rian.ru for RIA 'Novosti' news.