آتش سوزی در خاور روسیه Fires in Eastern Russia

Fires in Eastern Russia

Several large, smoky fires burned in the forests of southeastern Russia when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this image. The fires are marked in red.
The image includes parts of two Russian provinces, the Irkutsk Region in the east and the Krasnoyarsk Territory in the west. On June 1, 59 fires burned in the Irkutsk Region, affecting 1,214.3 hectares, said EMERCOM of Russia. 33 fires burned in Krasnoyarsk Territory, affecting 1,834.8 hectares. Most of the fires burned in forest, producing the thick smoke shown in the image.
The two regions were among the areas that posed the greatest challenge to firefighters in early June because of the difficult, remote terrain and warm, fire-friendly weather. So far in 2011, 425,186.16 hectares of land have burned, compared to 187,391.39 hectares for the same period in 2010
Thick smoke blanketed eastern Russia on May 26, 2011, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this image. The smoke is rising from clusters of intense wildfires, which are marked in red.
The fires are burning in the forests around the Aldan and Lena rivers in the Sakha Republic (Yakutiya). According to Rusian Tsalikov, the first deputy minister of EMERCOM on Russia, the fires in the Russian Far East are more extreme than usual, requiring federal firefighting assitance. Most of the fires, said Tsalikov, were started by people burning grasses and undergrowth. Hot, dry, and windy weather helped the fires expand to the forests.

1. References

2. BBC News. Fears of repeat disaster as fires rage in Russian east. Accessed June 2, 2011.
3. Tsalikov, R. (2011, May 25). About the fire situation in Russia. EMERCOM of Russia, the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergencies, and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters. Accessed June 2, 2011

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