Firefighters Put Out 19 Wildfires in Russia’s Far East

VLADIVOSTOK, May 8 (RIA Novosti) - Firefighters extinguished 19 wildfires in Russia’s Far East in the past 24 hours, the local forestry department said on Friday.

“Forty-six wildfires have been registered in the Far East in the past 24 hours,” the department said. “Firefighters put out 19 wildfires and contained another eleven.”

It added that 27 fires remained to be addressed but that there was no threat to inhabited localities.

The area covered by wildfires in the region in the past day has totaled 1,300 hectares, including 538 hectares of forests. A total of 564 people, 115 units of machinery and 19 aircraft were used in the firefighting effort.

The Russian government said on its website on Tuesday that Russia would take out a $40 million loan from the World Bank to prevent forest fires and promote sustainable forest management.

The bank cited official data according to which there are on average 24,000 forest fires annually covering 1.4 million hectares of forest, with up to 93 percent of the country's forest fires being of a man-made nature. Total carbon emissions from fire-affected Russian forests are estimated at 50 to 231 million tons of carbon per year.