Forest fires smoke in Yakutia envelops Buryatia

The smoke from forest fires in Yakutia has enveloped Buryatia. The smog is even reported in the capital of Ulan-Ude Republic, which is situated far south from the border with the neighbouring Yakutia Republic, according to republican Forestry Agency spokesperson Alexandra Yegorova. “A hundred paratroopers from the federal reserve based in Buryatia are dispatched in Yakutia to help fighting forest fires, 50 more paratroopers of the Trans-Baikal forest security airbase are about to be dispatched,” she reported on Thursday. “All forest fires are put out in Buryatia as of the morning on August 8. The last fire in northern Baikal district triggered by a thunderstorm has been put out yesterday,” Yegorova noted. From the beginning of the fire-prone season in Buryatia 604 forest fires were reported. This figure is 6.5 times less than that in the previous year by the same date. The fires damaged and destroyed more than 20,000 hectares of taiga.