Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared a state of emergency in parts of western and central Russia on Monday as hundreds of wildfires continue to rage.
Unusually high temperatures, hitting 95 degrees Fahrenheit some days over the past five weeks, and severe drought, sparked the fires in forests and peat bogs.
The large-scale wildfires have killed at least 40 people and left over 3,000 homeless. Estimated damages are about $150 million so far.
The government says it will compensate for losses and help rebuild homes. Military forces have been mobilized to help emergency workers fight the wildfires.
Regions affected by the state of emergency include Moscow, Voronezh, Vladimirskaya, Ryazanskaya and Nijegorodskaya.
On Monday, smoke from fires in the capital region once again appeared in Moscow as they had last week.
Some locals have complained that firefighters did not effectively respond to the natural disaster, only arriving after everything was burned.
However officials said that they experienced difficulties with firefighting because fires ignited suddenly and spread quickly.
Locals report that the fires caught them by surprise.
Tatiana Zhavoronkova, 22, from a village in the region of Nijegorodskaya told the Russian BBC that her house burned down and nothing was left in her village except several schools and brick houses.
“Black clouds of smoke were rushing at a rate of knots. I thought we would be swept out,” she says.
Zhavoronkova managed to escape from the deadly zone after her neighbor picked her and her child up. But dozens of people could not escape and were caught by fires, she said.
Unusually high temperatures, hitting 95 degrees Fahrenheit some days over the past five weeks, and severe drought, sparked the fires in forests and peat bogs.
The large-scale wildfires have killed at least 40 people and left over 3,000 homeless. Estimated damages are about $150 million so far.
The government says it will compensate for losses and help rebuild homes. Military forces have been mobilized to help emergency workers fight the wildfires.
Regions affected by the state of emergency include Moscow, Voronezh, Vladimirskaya, Ryazanskaya and Nijegorodskaya.
On Monday, smoke from fires in the capital region once again appeared in Moscow as they had last week.
Some locals have complained that firefighters did not effectively respond to the natural disaster, only arriving after everything was burned.
However officials said that they experienced difficulties with firefighting because fires ignited suddenly and spread quickly.
Locals report that the fires caught them by surprise.
Tatiana Zhavoronkova, 22, from a village in the region of Nijegorodskaya told the Russian BBC that her house burned down and nothing was left in her village except several schools and brick houses.
“Black clouds of smoke were rushing at a rate of knots. I thought we would be swept out,” she says.
Zhavoronkova managed to escape from the deadly zone after her neighbor picked her and her child up. But dozens of people could not escape and were caught by fires, she said.
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