Death toll from Russian wildfires rises to 48

Voronezh, Russia (News Today) - Tens of thousands of firefighters are battling a series of wildfires that have claimed the lives of 48 people, the nation's Emergency Situations Ministry said Wednesday.

But the overall fire situation might be improving. On Wednesday, the total of 246 fires were burning, down from about 1,200 over the weekend.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is scheduled to meet with firefighters in Voronezh on Wednesday.

During an earlier visit to Nizhny Novgorod, Putin called on local officials to step down because they had been accused of a "chaotic and uncoordinated" response.

Putin has said the families of those who died in wildfires would each receive 1 million rubles ($33,000) in compensation. He also said the government would allocate around 3 million rubles ($100,000) to rebuild the destroyed homes.

Earlier this week, Russian authorities imposed a state of emergency for about 500 towns and villages because of the wildfires burning across the west of the country.

The most serious situation was on the outskirts of the town of Sarov in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

Most of the fires -- among the worst ever to hit the region -- were started accidentally by people burning garbage, dropping cigarettes, or failing to extinguish campfires or barbecues properly, Emergency Situations Ministry representative Irina Andrianova said earlier.

About 115,000 hectares have burned, she said. That is nearly 450 square miles. A hectare is about the size of a baseball field or an international rugby pitch.

Heat and drought have made Russia especially susceptible to wildfires, officials have said. High temperatures are expected to continue through the middle of August, with no rain forecast.

Source : CNN

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