Fires in Siberia pose no threat to people but forecast is complicated, says prime minister

On Tuesday, Russian First Deputy Emergencies Minister Alexander Chupriyan arrived in the Krasnoyarsk Region to oversee the firefighting effort. He convened the ministry’s board meeting and attended a session of the regional government’s emergencies commission.

Earlier, Chupriyan said some 3 mln hectares of the taiga in Siberia and the Far East were blazing and this area was growing. He stressed that the current wildfires did not pose any threat to the settlements and economic facilities, but people were suffering from smoke. A decision was made to extend Russia’s firefighting task force.

A state of emergency over wildfires has been declared across the entire territory of Siberia’s Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk regions, two districts of Buryatia and one district of Yakutia.