Amid a record heat wave and drought, fires in a great portion of eastern Russia are burning out of control. Entire villages have been destroyed by the flames and as of Aug. 6 the death toll was 48. Moscow was suffocating under a toxic blanket of smoke and 4,000 individuals have lost their residences. In certain areas, nuclear contamination from the Chernobyl disaster locked up within the trees could possibly be re-released by the fires. A rare does of criticism is being laid upon Russian government agencies for their slow response and lack of preparation to fight the fires.
Russian fires add to summer of disaster
Russian fires have burned more than 1.6 million acres of land since they began, as outlined by the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry. To fight the fires, the government has enlisted more than 155,000 people. The Wall Street Journal reports that more than 400 new fires emerged even as 293 were put out. A total of 520 fires were blazing across Russia on Aug. 6. The record Russian heat wave that started the fires-as well as the Russia’s worst drought in at least three decades-shows no sign of letting up. Searing heat will remain, with some parts of the country reaching up to 107 degrees, until at least Aug. 12.
Public feels burned by Russian government
Russian fires have also ignited public anger as the government struggles to get the disaster under control. The latest disaster has underscored the inability of the government to protect Russians from such calamities, according to the Financial Times. Even with a trillion-dollar plus economy driven by energy resources, Russians still chafe under incompetent public officials, poor safety preparation and a deteriorating infrastructure. Nikolay Petrov of the Carnegie Moscow Centre told the Times the death toll is much higher in Russia than in other nations where such fires occur because the system is “absolutely dysfunctional”. Petrov said that under the “super-centralized” political apparatus installed by Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin, communication was far too slow to be effective.
Europe could expect drifting nuclear contamination
Nuclear contamination is another threat posed by Russian fires. AFP reports that radioactive cesium 137 from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster is locked up in the trees and dead leaves in forests in certain areas of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Philippe Renaud, head of the environmental radiation laboratory at France’s IRSN nuclear safety institute, said Russian nuclear contamination might be breathed in by people as far away as France If trees in those areas burn.
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