Human factor: Ministry of Emergency Situations told about the main cause of forest fires in Siberia

The main cause of forest fires in the Siberian and Far Eastern federal districts of Russia, most likely, was the human factor. This was reported in the press service of the Emergency Ministry. The ministry noted that it is the fact that a significant part of fires are located near the roads that pushes on such conclusions.

“The conducted air reconnaissance showed that most of the fires are located near the roads, which suggests that the main reason for the occurrence of natural fires is the man’s careless handling of fire,” the Emergencies Ministry said.

In this regard, the head of the ministry, Yevgeny Zinichev, stressed the need for public outreach.

“It is necessary to continue explanatory work with the population to the executive authorities, local self-government bodies of subjects, internal affairs agencies, the Emergencies Ministry, including with the involvement of volunteers and volunteers,” he said during a conference call.

Earlier, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said about the possible influence of the human factor on the beginning of the fires. He suggested that the fire may be associated with illegal logging.

“With regard to illegal logging and deforestation, it is obvious that this kind of problem exists in our country and is very widespread. The link between such illegal actions and fires remains to be established; it cannot be assumed. But nevertheless there is such a point of view, it should be analyzed at the level of law enforcement agencies and special supervisory services, ”RIA Novosti quotes the Prime Minister.

"The fire area decreased by 25%"

Recall that the forest fires in Siberia began in the second half of July, and at the end of the month, an emergency situation was introduced not on the territory of several regions. Then, in the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the main cause of the fire was called natural anomalies - drought and extreme heat.

In early August, the total area of ​​fires exceeded 2.8 million hectares. The Ministry of Emergency Situations launched a reinforced group to fight the fire, and the Defense Ministry forces were also involved. The ministry reported that since the beginning of the operation, the military air force extinguished about 750 thousand hectares of fires out of 1.1 million.

“On the morning of August 5, the Il-76 airplanes of the military transport aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces made 10 sorties, discharge 420 tons of water. The crews of the Mi-8 helicopters made 10 sorties and 27 water discharges, a total of 135 tons of water, ”the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The steps taken by the defense ministry reduced the speed of fire spreading in the Krasnoyarsk Territory five times, the report underlines.

During the meeting on Monday, August 5, Yevgeny Zinichev also noted that the number of fires had started to decline over the past week, and the total area where the fire had been extinguished grew. So, after the strengthening of the EMERCOM grouping in the Siberian and Far Eastern federal districts, the fire was eliminated on the territory of 1 million hectares.

“All natural fires in specially protected areas have been eliminated. Thus, the total area of ​​fires since July 30 has decreased by 25%, ”according to the website of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

During the meeting, it was also reported that the fire is now actively burning on an area of ​​57 thousand hectares (in the Krasnoyarsk Territory - about 42 thousand hectares, in the Irkutsk region - about 14 thousand hectares). The general grouping of forces involved in extinguishing consists of more than 4 thousand men of personnel and 416 units of equipment.

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277 criminal cases

According to the fact of the occurrence of natural fires, 277 criminal cases were initiated, said the Chief State Inspector of the Russian Federation for Fire Supervision, Deputy Head of the Emergencies Ministry Igor Kobzev. According to him, more than 3.3 thousand cases in the initiation of criminal cases were denied.

“On July 31, investigators of state fire supervision on the results of inspections of messages related to forest fires, initiated 277 criminal cases under article 261 of the Criminal Code" Destruction or damage to forest plantations, "he said.

Also on August 5, it became known that the authorities in a number of regions in which forest fires were continuing distorted statistics related to the natural disaster. This was stated by the representative of the head office of the General Prosecutor’s Office Roman Fedosov.

"We recorded a distortion of data on the time of fire suppression ... Reliably, we can talk about distortions in the Irkutsk region and a number of other regions ... In the Krasnoyarsk Territory we are still checking, in Buryatia such cases have not been identified," RIA Novosti quotes him.

Fedosov explained that we are talking about the distortion of data on the distances to settlements and the time of fire suppression, which is why experts did not have time to react adequately to fires. According to him, the speed of deployment of the group of rescuers was also affected by the bureaucratic delays of regional authorities.