Latest Russian Forest Fires: More Damage Than For All of 2002

July 25, 2003
MOSCOW (AFP)

Forest fires raging in Russia this year have already caused more damage than in all of 2002, notably in Siberia and Russia's Far East where smoke pollution is affecting people's health, the environment ministry said Friday.

Scorching temperatures and violent winds were fanning the flames in these two regions, where 20,000 separate blazes have been recorded over a vast area of 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres), said the ministry's forestries official Alexei Yermolenko, cited by the ITAR-TASS news agency.

The smog triggered by the fires is causing respiratory problems, even for healthy people, in the far eastern region of Khabarovsk, the ministry said.

The areas affected are sparsely populated with difficult terrain, hindering easy access by firefighters.

Russia's forests span 1.1 billion hectares (2.7 billion acres), or two thirds of Russian territory, and account for a fifth of all the world's forests.

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