Fires in Russian Far East spread to peat bogs

Text of report by Russian news agency RIA

Khabarovsk, 27 June: The forest fires raging in Khabarovsk Territory have spread to peat bogs, RIA-Novosti was told today by Marina Chesalina, an aide to the head of the Russian Natural Resources Ministry’s Main Directorate for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection for Khabarovsk Territory.

The first fire in the peat bogs was registered this morning by staff from the forestry protection service of the Litovskiy forestry authority. The second was discovered at the Avanskiy forestry authority. “The areas on fire are relatively small – half a hectare and 25 ha,” Chesalina said. “The problem is that such fires don’t usually spread across the surface but go deeper, burning up huge passageways in the earth, known as galleries, that are often invisible from the surface. They’re hard and dangerous to put out.”

A complex situation, according to ecologists, is developing near Lazo where the wind is fanning the flames of forest fires towards the most valuable sections of a walnut-growing area.

Chesalina said that 391 specialists, 70 vehicles, tractors and bulldozers and 12 planes and helicopters were working to put out the fires in the territory.