A total of 105 woodland fires covering the area of about 3,000 hectares are registered in four Russian regions, sources from the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations' information department told Itar-Tass on Monday. “Over the past 24 hours the number of fires increased by 41, while their area – by 271.7 hectares,” the sources said. They said forest fires are raging in the Far Eastern, Siberian, Volga-Urals and Central federal districts. Major fires are fixed in the Primorsky Territory and the Amur region. A fire emergency has been declared in two districts of the Baikal region, the sources stressed. Almost 3,000 people are fighting forest fires. They are assisted by 742 units of special hardware, including two planes. The sources stressed that “forest fires pose no danger to settlements, oil and gas pipelines and other economic facilities”. According to the emergencies ministry, 1,418 centers of woodland fires have been registered across Russia since the start of the year. Their total area is over 43,000 hectares.
