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Russian PM Orders Reinforcements To Fight Forest Blazes


A fire rages in Siberia's Tomsk region.
A fire rages in Siberia's Tomsk region.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered more men, equipment, and money be mobilized to battle hundreds of forest fires burning in the country's remote Siberian and Far Eastern districts.

Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry says the worst fires were in the thinly populated Krasnoyarsk region, where blazes are spreading and now cover some 1.4 million square hectares.

Also hard-hit were territories in central Siberia, the Ural Mountains, areas near the Mongolian border, and on the Pacific coast.

More than 210,000 workers and 45,000 vehicles are participating in Russia's forest-fire control effort.

The authorities have also deployed 108 airplanes and helicopters, many operating as water bombers.

Based on reporting by dpa, Interfax, and RIA Novosti

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