Bazaar
Russian Wildfires Now as Big as Vermont and Delaware Combined, Greenpeace Says | The Weather Channel

Russian Wildfires Now as Big as Vermont and Delaware Combined, Greenpeace Says

Above: Driver attempts to escape a wildfire burning in the Chernyshevsky district on May 17, 2016.

Amid fears that Russia could face its worst wildfire season in a century, major wildfires have burned an at least 11,500 square miles across the country, Greenpeace told NBC News on Tuesday.

The fires, as big as Vermont and Delaware combined, are mainly human-caused, Greenpeace Russia's forest program head Alexey Yaroshenko told NBC News. Villagers in eastern Russia often burn grass to make way as new growth begins each spring, but the infernos can quickly get out of control, Yaroshenko also said.

More than 100 wildfires are currently burning in Russia, the report added. Some of those fires exploded in the last 24 hours, growing by as many as 100 square miles, a Russian aerial forest protection service told the TASS Russian news agency.

(MORE: Russian Wildfires Can Be Seen From Space)

Advertisement
image
Crews attempt to control a wildfire burning in Russia's Zabaikalsky region.
(Agata Karasyova/Greenpeace)

The wildfires have grown so large that the smoke is blowing across the Pacific Ocean and into Canada, Wildfire Today said.

Russian government officials dispute the Greenpeace claims about the size of the blazes, however. According to NBC News, the Federal Forestry Agency said less than 2,000 square miles have burned in 2016, far fewer than the claims of 11,500 square miles burned. Greenpeace responded by saying the government's number does not include fires started by foresters, several of which have burned out of control.

Since 2000, the worst Russian wildfire season occurred in 2013, when 50,000 square miles of land – about the size of Alabama – were claimed, NBC News also said.

"We're getting to the point where more forest burns than is grown back," Yaroshenko told NBC News. "We're losing the forests."

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Wildfire Scorches Fort McMurray, Canada

Firefighters and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers greet returning residents from an overpass on Highway 63 just outside Fort McMurray, Alberta, on June 1, 2016. Tens of thousands of Fort McMurray residents were expected to begin trickling back into the Canadian oil city ravaged by wildfires almost a month after the blaze was declared no longer a threat.
1/501
Firefighters and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers greet returning residents from an overpass on Highway 63 just outside Fort McMurray, Alberta, on June 1, 2016. Tens of thousands of Fort McMurray residents were expected to begin trickling back into the Canadian oil city ravaged by wildfires almost a month after the blaze was declared no longer a threat.
Advertisement