Russia Forest Fires Burn; Heat Wave Ongoing

Hundreds of thousands of firefighters, including army troops, on Saturday battled forest fires raging across central Russia in a heat wave that has killed more than 30 people.

Temperatures were forecast to hit 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in the next few days in several central Russian regions, with the emergency ministry warning of an “extreme risk” of more forest fires.

Around 238,000 firefighters were tackling the fires in 14 regions, along with 226 aircraft, the emergency ministry said Saturday.

More than 2,000 troops have been sent in to back up firefighters in the drought ridden regions, a defense ministry spokeswoman told ITAR-TASS news agency on Saturday.

In the village of Maslovka outside Vorenzh, 600 kilometers (370 miles) southeast of Moscow, in one of the hardest hit areas, a resident stood outside the remains of her charred home.

“It burned down in just one minute, we only had time to save the children,” said the woman.

Only five of Maslovka’s 150 homes had been spared by the fire, which arrived swiftly and silently, villagers said.

Authorities had promised quick compensation of 100,000 rubles, and Putin pledged that all homes would be rebuilt by the end of October.

President Dmitry Medvedev called the fires “a natural disaster,” in televised comments to Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov on Saturday, speaking in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

“Unfortunately the forces of the emergency ministry, its regional capabilities, are not sufficient because this is really a natural disaster that happens probably only once every 30 or 40 years,” Medvedev said.

Serdyukov said that defense ministry firefighting units were working flat out but admitted that the armed forces were struggling to secure their own military bases.

“Some of our own installations are also in quite a difficult situation,” Serdyukov said. “Unfortunately we were fighting fires yesterday and the day before.”

The emergency ministry, however, said it had the situation under control.

“Despite the unpromising weather forecast, the task force we have created and preventive measures we have taken, as well as the active use of emergency ministry aircraft, allow us to control the situation,” it said in a statement.

Three more bodies were found Saturday in burnt-out houses in the Nizhny Novgorod region, the regional emergency ministry told the Interfax news agency, raising the number of deaths reported to 31, including three firemen.

The emergency ministry did not give a toll for the whole of Russia.