Dramatic footage posted on Youtube shows a train battling through a wall of fire and smoke in Russia’s Far East as wildfires reduced the region to a hellscape.
In the terrifying video captured by passengers, the flames are seen coming close to the train while the railway completely disappears in a cloud of smoke. The inferno is rapidly extending across the region and threatening to paralyze railway traffic, including the legendary Trans-Siberia railway connecting Moscow to Vladivostok.
Emergency authorities announced a special firefighting regime north of the Russian Far East after the wildfires started earlier this year. The historically warm winter and lack of snow turned the region into a tinderbox. A personnel of more than 13,000 has been deployed for fire-fighting operations.
An area the size of Maui, the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands, has been burned by massive wildfire in the last two months, according to the Federal Forestry Agency.
Meanwhile, strong winds and dry weather are compounding matters by bringing smoke from the neighboring northern regions of China, which are also battling with wildfires.
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