At least six people have died in the forest fires that had erupted in the Kurgan region of Russia, state news agency TASS reports, citing medical sources.
Local governor Vadim Shumkov has promised to pay out 50,000 rubles (€600) each to local residents who had lost all property in the fires and 10,000 rubles (€120) each to people who had lost parts of their property. State of emergency was declared in the region.
In the early hours of 8 May, a 49-year-old local man died while trying to extinguish a wildfire in the Krasny Yar village, Tyumen region, local district head Valery Borisov said.
Two people were injured, one of them was hospitalised. The wildfire in the area near the village was contained, the local authorities reported.
State of emergency to help fight forest fires was introduced in the Tyumen region on 7 May; going into the woods and starting fires has been forbidden.
Severe wildfires started in the Kurgan, Tyumen, and Yekaterinburg regions of Russia over the last weekend. Head of Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry Alexander Kurenkov flew into the Kurgan region. Afterwards, the ministry reported that six out of nine landscape fires were contained and one extinguished.
In the Yekaterinburg region, the area of natural fires spread from 33,000 up to 54,000 hectares in a day, according to the local authorities. As per a local Telegram channel, 1,241 people were evacuated in the region in two days.
