Wildfires sweep central Russia in hottest summer on record – 150 new fires daily, thousands evacuated
By Alfred Kueppers and Conor Humphries; editing by Matthew Jones/David Stamp
Fri Jul 30, 2010 6:57am EDT VORONEZH, Russia (Reuters) – Forest fires swept across central Russia on Friday, killing at least eight people and forcing the evacuation of thousands during the hottest summer since records began 130 years ago. Fanned by strong winds, raging fires ripped through woods and fields already scorched by the heatwave. The emergencies ministry said 866 square km, an area about the size of Berlin, was on fire in hundreds of peat and forest blazes. “We don’t know where to go,” said Galina Shibanova, 52, standing outside the charred remains of her family home in the town of Maslovka in the Voronezh region, about 500 km (300 miles) south of Moscow. “We called the emergency services, and not one person answered the phone,” she said, adding that at least 50 homes had been destroyed. A heatwave has engulfed European parts of Russia and Siberia since June, destroying crops and pushing thousands of farmers to the verge of bankruptcy. … More than 1,100 homes were destroyed across central Russia, Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies. He said 238,000 people had been deployed to fight the fires. … Thousands were evacuated, including 900 patients from a hospital in Voronezh region that was threatened by the flames and 1,200 children from summer camps in Ryazan region, the emergencies ministry said.
