INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
toward the crisis.The current area of forest fires burning across Russia is twice as large as that of the same time last year, the
Kommersant business daily reported this week, citing Greenpeace Russia
Fourteen regions of Russia have declared special fire regimes, with the most severe fires seen in Siberia and the Far East.Russian Twitter
found that fine particle concentrations in the air exceeded levels considered hazardous to human health due to smoke from wildfires.Nearly
300 grass fires were reported in the Omsk region of western Siberia, with smoke from the fires reaching the city of Tyumen 625 kilometers
The haze and smoke from fires can be seen for tens of kilometers, including in Omsk
historic drought conditions and anbormally high temperatures have turned the region's vast swathes of forest into a tinder box.Russian
officials have linked the increasingly severe fires to climate change.
