The area of forest fires has enlarged to 977 hectares in the Far East. There were 18 outbreaks in Yakutia, the Amur Region, the Khabarovsk Territory and Chukotka by Friday morning, the forestry department in the Far East Federal District reported to Itar-Tass. Eight new fires broke out in the taiga over the past day. Ablaze are 390 hectares of forests in Yakutia and 552 hectares in the Amur Region. The fires are not large so far in the Khabarovsk Territory and the Chukotka Autonomous Area, a department source said. A special fire prevention regime is imposed in 35 municipalities in Yakutia, the Amur Region, the Jewish Autonomous Region, the Khabarovsk and Primorsky Territories and The Chukotka Area, the Russian Emergencies Ministry's regional centre said. Since the beginning of the season, there have been 1,234 wildfires in the Far East. The blaze swept more than 450,000 hectares, including over 339,000 hectares of forests. The wildfires destroyed logging areas as well as more than 3,100 hectares of forest reserves.
