"The ‘state of emergency in forests’ regime has been put in place throughout the Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk regions and partially in the Buryatia Region. Most fires were registered in Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, the Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk regions," the ministry said.

MOSCOW, July 29. /TASS/. A state of emergency has been declared in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk regions and partially in the Buryatia Region because of forest fires, the press service of the Russian Emergencies Ministry informed TASS on Monday.

The fires in the aforementioned areas led to smoke in some cities of neighboring regions. The environmental situation is being monitored, the ministry said.

According to the Emergencies Ministry, Russia’s firefighting task force dealing with wildfires will be extended in order to swiftly localize and put out blazes. According to First Deputy Emergencies Minister Alexander Chupriyan, the task is to localize and extinguish the fires in the near future.

Residents of Siberian regions earlier began collecting signatures under an online petition calling on the government to declare a state of emergency in Siberia and make vigorous efforts to extinguish forest fires. The most difficult situation is currently in the Krasnoyarsk Region and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).