At least 10 people are dead and hundreds of homes and buildings are destroyed in eastern Siberia due to fires. The fires were spread out of control because of high winds, which caused downed power lines to short-circuit, sparking the flames, which were then blown across the area.
The winds reached speeds of up to 131 feet (40 meters) per second, which prevented aircraft from assisting the 300 firefighters and 90 vehicles on the ground. 11 people were taken to hospitals for injuries sustained in the fires, and 10 of them died.
The governor of the Krasnoyarsk region gave the order to cut off electricity in the area.
He told reporters that they had called for help from neighboring territories, but that it would be best if they didn't arrive for a while.
The fires were helped by the dry conditions in the region, according to Roman Vilfand, a meteorologist at the Hydrometeorological Research Centre of the Russian Federation.
Russian authorities said at the end of April that they had already extinguished more than 600 fires in the eastern part of the country. The smoke from those fires caused hazy skies over the West Coast.
Climate change is making wildfires more and more common in Siberia. Russia's winter of 2019-2020 was the hottest on record, while the spring-summer heatwave of 2020 sent temperatures soaring above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Climate change made this heatwave 600 times more likely, according to scientists. The 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217
These types of fires can be devastating to local communities and can also release greenhouse gases, as the permafrost in the region is a huge source of both methane and carbon dioxide. The 2020 fires above and below the Arctic Circle released a record-breaking amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The earth opened up due to methane in the ground exploding, as temperatures got so hot that year.
The war in Ukraine could affect efforts to fight fires. Local villages could be in danger without the help of the Russian military, according to some experts.
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