Firefighting aircraft launched a “massive” attack on blazes near Moscow as smoke retreated temporarily from the Russian capital.The Emergency Situations Ministry began the operation yesterday evening and today deployed two Il-76 transport planes, two Be-200 amphibious aircraft and four helicopters, according to a statement on its website. Crews also began soaking peat bogs southeast of Moscow that have frequently ignited, filling the city with acrid smoke, the ministry said.
Moscow has been choking on smoke from forest fires and burning bogs since the last week of July, with occasional brief reprieves. Record heat and the worst drought in half a century have damaged crops and fuelled the flames that have scorched 810,804 hectares (3,131 square miles) this year and left 53 people dead. The drought led the government to ban grain exports and threatens to slow Russia’s recovery after the economy shrank 7.9 percent in 2009. The smoke cloud is expected to return to Moscow by the weekend and remain there because of an absence of wind, Rossiya- 24 reported. The temperature in the city rose as high as 33.4 degrees Celsius (92 degrees Fahrenheit) today after reaching 38.2 degrees Celsius, the highest ever, on July 29.
Areas with radioactive contamination from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster have been affected by forest fires, Interfax reported, citing the federal forestry agency. Fires in such areas, covering 3,900 hectares, have been recorded since June, the news service said. Radioactivity levels in the Bryansk region and three others affected by Chernobyl are normal, the Emergency Situations Ministry said on its website today. A ministry laboratory has monitored areas scorched by fires since last week.
The radioactivity in Moscow’s air doesn’t exceed normal levels, the Swiss embassy said in an e-mailed bulletin to citizens today. The most toxic day was Aug. 9, when carbon monoxide was at 6.5 times the acceptable level and the concentration of particulate pollutants was 5.6 times higher than permissible, according to the embassy. The European Union said in a statement today that the embassies of its 27 member nations are working normally. Consular services are continuing at the U.S. embassy with some delays because of staff shortages, spokesman David Siefkin said by phone. About 100 dependents and non-essential staff have been given the option to leave Moscow for as long as 30 days.
The fire situation in central Russia is stabilizing, Vladimir Stepanov, head of the Emergency Situations Ministry’s crisis center, said on Rossiya-24. Several rivers in central Russia are unfavorable for navigation because of a continuing drop in water levels, the state Hydrometeorological Center said on its website. The drought is exacerbated as planes scoop up water to douse fires. The heat and high fire danger will persist in most parts of European Russia and in the Urals through at least Aug. 13, according to the Hydrometeorological Center.
At least 15,000 people may have died as a result of heat and smog, according to extrapolations based on Moscow’s mortality rate made by Jeff Masters, co-founder of Weather Underground Internet weather service. The economic cost this year could total $15 billion, or 1 percent of gross domestic product, Alexander Morozov, chief economist at HSBC Holdings Plc in Moscow, said yesterday.
hai
ReplyDeletereally it is very bad diaster about Moscow and At least 15,000 people may have died as a result of heat and smog, according to extrapolations based on Moscow’s mortality rate made by Jeff Masters, co-founder of Weather Underground Internet weather service.
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