Wildfires burning 25,000 hectares per day in Russia s Far East

Vladivostok Aug 16 (IANS) The area affected by wildfire in Russia s Far East increases by 25 000 hectares per day out of which 18 000 hectares is non-forested the forestry department said on Wednesday.

There have been 100 registered fires in the past days -- 95 in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) three in the Sakhalin Oblast and two in the Khabarovsk Territory Xinhua news agency cited the forestry department as saying.

The most serious is in Yakutia where more than 800 000 hectares of forest and non-forest areas have been affected by fires.

Extinguishing is hard to carry out in most of the remote areas due to lack of transport access.

A total of 590 people and 45 units of equipment are involved in extinguishing the fires in Yakutia.

--IANS
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