State of emergency declared in Siberia as fires rage

A state of emergency has been declared in several eastern regions, where hundreds of wildfires are now raging.

­The wildfires cover an 8,331-hectare area in total, according to the Siberian Federal District Forestry Department. Around 1,600 people and 42 planes are now fighting the fires.

According to Greenpeace, the situation is worse now than at the same time in the summer of 2010, when Russia was devastated by forest fires.

Local authorities, however, claim there is currently no threat to local populated areas or businesses. The fires have decreased by one-third over the weekend.

There are several factors that could lead to the repetition of summer 2010, Anton Beneslavsky, from the Greenpeace Russia forest department, told RT. 

“First of all, no one was punished for the fire crisis of 2010, when even Moscow suffered. Those people are still there and are still not doing anything,” Beneslavsky said.

“Secondly, there is a new law which obliges fire brigades to get licenses to be able to put out fires. There was a case in Astrakhan Region last spring when the fires were already raging but the teams were waiting for their licenses to be approved,” he added.

The final reason, Beneslavsky said, is the 2006 forest code, which ruined the whole forest watch system.

"What we've got is a lack of personnel and a lack of system. Ordinary firefighting officers are decent people and are often ready to risk their lives. But we've seen that heroism in Tuva recently, when eight people were killed. It's an unprecedented tragedy.”