Death and destruction as firesrage through Russian villages
Source: Agencies |
July 31, 2010, Saturday
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FOREST fires raged across Russia yesterday, destroying villages, surrounding one southern city and killing at least 25 people, including three firefighters, officials said.
The fires have spread quickly across more than 90,000 hectares in recent days after a record heat wave and severe drought that has plagued Russia for weeks.
Fields and forests have dried up, and much of this year's wheat harvest has been ruined.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the smoldering ruins of Verkhnyaya Vereya yesterday, where all 341 houses were burned to the ground and two residents died. The village was one of three destroyed around Nizhny Novgorod, Russia's fifth-largest city 475 kilometers east of Moscow.
"Before winter, each house will be restored," Putin told a crowd of distressed villagers, most of them women. "I promise the village will be rebuilt."
One weeping woman thanked him for his "serious talk" and promises of compensation of 200,000 rubles (US$6,500) for each villager, and Putin kissed her on the cheek.
The fires in the Voronezh, Nizhny Novogorod and Moscow regions have destroyed more than 1,000 houses and left more than 2,000 people homeless, according to the country's Emergencies Ministry. Fires were also raging in 11 other regions in central and southern Russia.
Fires have all but encircled Voronezh, a city of 850,000 people, some 475 kilometers south of Moscow. Its streets were filled with smog yesterday and a giant wall of rising black smoke could be seen on the horizon.
More than 900 patients had to be transferred out of a Voronezh hospital on Thursday and nearly 2,000 children were evacuated from summer camps.
Firefighters trying to contain the blaze were pouring water on the forests from the air, emergencies services spokeswoman Olga Izvekova said.
At least 25 people have died in the past two days. The toll includes five people, including one firefighter, in Voronezh, and six residents and a firefighter who died when a fire swept through the Mokhovoye village in the Moscow region on Thursday evening. The other deaths were in the Nizhny Novgorod and Lipetsk regions.
Forest fires on Moscow's outskirts reached the city's western fringe on Thursday, but were extinguished.
The fires have spread quickly across more than 90,000 hectares in recent days after a record heat wave and severe drought that has plagued Russia for weeks.
Fields and forests have dried up, and much of this year's wheat harvest has been ruined.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the smoldering ruins of Verkhnyaya Vereya yesterday, where all 341 houses were burned to the ground and two residents died. The village was one of three destroyed around Nizhny Novgorod, Russia's fifth-largest city 475 kilometers east of Moscow.
"Before winter, each house will be restored," Putin told a crowd of distressed villagers, most of them women. "I promise the village will be rebuilt."
One weeping woman thanked him for his "serious talk" and promises of compensation of 200,000 rubles (US$6,500) for each villager, and Putin kissed her on the cheek.
The fires in the Voronezh, Nizhny Novogorod and Moscow regions have destroyed more than 1,000 houses and left more than 2,000 people homeless, according to the country's Emergencies Ministry. Fires were also raging in 11 other regions in central and southern Russia.
Fires have all but encircled Voronezh, a city of 850,000 people, some 475 kilometers south of Moscow. Its streets were filled with smog yesterday and a giant wall of rising black smoke could be seen on the horizon.
More than 900 patients had to be transferred out of a Voronezh hospital on Thursday and nearly 2,000 children were evacuated from summer camps.
Firefighters trying to contain the blaze were pouring water on the forests from the air, emergencies services spokeswoman Olga Izvekova said.
At least 25 people have died in the past two days. The toll includes five people, including one firefighter, in Voronezh, and six residents and a firefighter who died when a fire swept through the Mokhovoye village in the Moscow region on Thursday evening. The other deaths were in the Nizhny Novgorod and Lipetsk regions.
Forest fires on Moscow's outskirts reached the city's western fringe on Thursday, but were extinguished.
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