In Buryatia, the area of forest fires exceeded 52 thousand hectares.

The area of forest fires in the Republic of Buryatia has increased to 52.5 thousand hectares over the past day. This was reported on May 12 in the press service of the Republican Forestry Agency (RALH).

"According to operational data, on the morning of May 12, 22 forest fires are active: in the Bauntovsky, Yeravninsky and Zakamensky districts, on a total area of 52.5 thousand hectares," the agency said in a statement on the VKontakte social network.

It is specified that over the past day, RALH employees discovered a new fire in the Bauntovsky district, which arose due to careless handling of fire. Two outbreaks were also eliminated in the Bichursky and Yeravninsky districts on an area of 2 thousand hectares.

The press service stressed that the fires are of low intensity (dry grass and shrubs are burning), therefore there is no threat to settlements. In total, 521 specialists and 100 units of forest fire fighting equipment are involved in extinguishing.

Fiery response: the number of forest fires has increased tenfold in Russia

A state of emergency has been introduced in three regions.

On May 11, RALH employees reported that the area of forest fires in Buryatia had increased to 44 thousand hectares over the past day. It was clarified that the specialists managed to eliminate four fires in the Bauntovsky and Yeravninsky districts, the area of which was more than 4 thousand hectares. According to preliminary information, the cause of these fires was careless handling of fire.