‘Plow, plow, manage, extinguish, saw’: RT reports from epicenter of battle against record wildfires in Russia’s Yakutia
As wildfires unseen in years continue to batter Russia’s Republic of Yakutia, an RT team visited areas that are at risk of being consumed by the raging fires and spoke to people who are working to stop it.
As of Wednesday, almost 170 wildfires have been raging in Yakutia in Russia’s Far East, spanning an area of 6.7 million hectares. The battle against the forest fires has been underway for weeks, and an emergency was declared in the republic earlier in August as the flames began approaching residential areas.
RT’s Dmitry Pauk, who has been doing a series of reports from the area, visited a local village that is threatened by fire from two sides, and observed the enormous efforts of the rescuers.
The skies above many places across Yakutia are now red and everything is covered in thick smoke, he reported from the scene, adding that the conditions are “taking a toll on our eyes; on our breath [and] lungs. Very rough out there.”
There are around 5,000 people currently involved in fighting the wildfires, including Emergencies Ministry staff and volunteers, some already on the frontline for 40 days.
They’ve been creating mineral zones and burning patches of forest in the path of the wildfires to leave them without fuel in an attempt to stop them. One volunteer needed few words to perfectly describe what he’s been doing in the woods of Yakutia recently.
“Plow, plow, manage, extinguish, saw,” he told RT. Russia is one of multiple countries battling huge blazes this summer. Turkey and Greece have also been hit by devastating wildfires, with emergency services battling them almost 24/7.
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