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Russia sends planes to dump water on Siberian wildfires as residents plead for help
- Defence minister says heatwave increased fire risk
- Temperatures 8-10 degrees Celsius higher than normal
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Russia’s army sent firefighting planes on Tuesday to battle huge wildfires that have blanketed Siberian towns in thick smoke as residents complain of being suffocated in a region known for its frozen tundra that is now sweltering under a heatwave.
With flames tearing across some 800,000 hectares of Russian forest, the hardest-hit region of Yakutia in the north has been in a state of emergency for weeks as climate scientists sound the alarm about the potential long-term impact.
Fires in Russia’s central Chelyabinsk region, meanwhile, last week killed one man and destroyed dozens of village homes.
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“We’re suffocating, our lungs are being poisoned by acrid smoke,” reads one of two online petitions by Yakutia’s residents addressed to President Vladimir Putin. They are asking for more equipment and forces to combat the fires.
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Russia has seen its annual fire season become more ferocious in recent years, as climate change has driven unusually high temperatures across the northern Siberian tundra.
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