World

Russia declares emergency as wildfires kill 34

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-08-03 09:12

People walk across Moscow's Red Square in heavy smog caused by peat fires in nearby forests August 2, 2010. [Photo/Agencies]

MASLOVKA, Russia - Russia declared a state of emergency in seven regions on Monday after wildfires killed at least 34 people and left thousands homeless in the worst heatwave since records began 130 years ago.

Fires raging across European Russia have destroyed homes, forests and fields, already scorched for weeks by an unprecedented heatwave.

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Drought in some regions of Russia, one of the world's biggest wheat exporters, has sent global prices soaring to 22-month highs and driven thousands of farmers to the brink of bankruptcy.

Officials said firefighting manpower was increased ten fold near a nuclear research centre in Sarov, Niznhy Novgorod region, one of the hardest-hit provinces, around 350 kilometres (220 miles) east of Moscow.

Nearly 700 wildfires were burning over 1,210 square kilometres (750 square miles) of land, a spokeswoman for the Emergency Situations Ministry told Reuters.

In the capital Moscow, residents wore masks against the choking smog caused by peat fires stoked by the hot weather.

President Dmitry Medvedev declared a state of emergency in the Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod, Vladimir, Ryazan, Mordovia and Mari El regions as well as the province that rings the capital, the Kremlin said in a statement.

The toll rose from 28 dead on Sunday to at least 34 on Monday, an Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman said. He would not give details about the locations or specific cause of death for the new fatalities.

More than 180,000 people were fighting the blazes and 18 aircraft dumped 3,000 tons of water on the fires and threatened areas on Sunday, the ministry said.

Firefighters near Maslovka in the southern Voronezh province, where the temperature on Monday hit 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit), welcomed a respite from high winds that have fanned flames.