The area of fires in Yakutia has decreased by 10 times compared to last year. This was made possible with the help of additional strength and funds obtained through increased federal funding. The region has valuable practices at the federal level in combating emergencies, the republic is ready to share them with other regions.
Operational monitoring
Over the past day in the territory of Yakutia, 10 forest fires were eliminated with a total area covered by fire, 1.8 thousand hectares. A day earlier, 20 forest fires on an area of more than 9.2 thousand hectares were extinguished, Deputy Minister of Ecology, Nature Management and Forestry of the Republic Andrey Konoplev said at a briefing.In total, 81 forest fires operate on the territory of the region on an area of 240,659 hectares; in the same period last year, 178 forest fires were active on an area of over 2.5 million hectares on this date. The extinguishing involved 1,131 people and 98 pieces of equipment. The situation is improving every day thanks to the coordinated work.
“The weather began to help us, it rained in a number of areas, sometimes heavy. But it is thanks to the work of our forest fire units that we manage to cope with the fire. We have two such formations — these are aviation forest protection & nbsp; and ground formations. The aviation base for the protection of forests extinguishes fires located in the aviation service area: in hard-to-reach areas where there are no roads. And ground services & nbsp; put out fires where there are roads & nbsp; or where you can reach by boat. Basically, these are areas near settlements. Of course, the most effective — it is to detect a fire promptly in small areas and with sufficient forces of forest fire formations, which must be well equipped with everything necessary, to quickly eliminate it, — told and. about. Minister of Ecology, Nature Management and Forestry of Yakutia Evgeny Perfilyev.
He noted that over the years of fighting forest fires in Yakutia, the most effective methods have been developed, including — mineralized strip laying and counter annealing.
“In order to limit the further spread of fire, the territory is being dug up to the mineral layer, after which the fire is localized and extinguished by human forces. Basically, everything is done manually, equipment, of course, is needed, but it is more difficult to get the equipment to the air zone, where our fire units are delivered using Mi-8 or An-2 helicopters, so our guys work there manually. Aviaforestry uses another effective method — explosive, this is when, with the help of explosive materials, a combustible litter is carried to the mineral layer. As for crown fires, in this case, only work with the help of counter annealing is possible, because it is very dangerous to approach directly, especially when the wind direction can change dramatically. We have Be-200 aircraft that take water from a reservoir and dump it from above, — Evgeny Perfiliev explained.
Photo: Press service of the administration of Yakutia (Sakha)
Under the supervision of aviation forest protection
Unique specialists work in Yakutia — observer pilots. This rare profession is taught in Moscow universities. This year, pilots from Primorye and Khabarovsk, who work in the Lensky, Ust-Maisky, Tomponsky air squadrons, were also invited to Yakutia to extinguish fires. Next year, training of another 9 pilots is planned, since it is planned to increase the control zone by another 20 million hectares, and the total area will already be 70 million hectares.
“The profession of a firefighter is in great demand with us, this applies to both ground services and aviation forest protection. But, unfortunately, only a part of the employees in the state, another part of the — seasonal workers. Basically, these are full-time students who study in the winter and come to work with us in the summer. The profession is very difficult, dangerous, responsible. Firefighters are people for whom this is really a vocation. These are really fans, patriots of their land, ",— says i. about. Minister of Ecology of Yakutia.
Thanks to the additional funding that Yakutia received this year, the region has increased the number of forest fire units, as well as aviation forest protection groups.
“The fire season began on May 7, during this time, in three months of the four most difficult forest fires, we registered 504 forest fires on an area of 402,000 hectares. During the same period last year, 1,328 forest fires were recorded on an area of 4,359,000 hectares. That is, the number of fires has decreased significantly, and this is all due to the fact that we have increased our ground-based forest fire formations and aviation forest protection. We opened three new branches in the hard-to-reach northern Tomponsky, Oymyakonsky and Verkhnekolymsky districts, there are plans to open three more branches— in Aldan, Srednekolymsky and Mirny districts. Then the situation would have improved even more, — Yevgeny Perfilyev noted.
Note that this year the number of parachute firefighters increased by 184 people. Groups of paratroopers were increased by 50 people. 1-2 groups of paratroopers work at all departments, fly out on An-2 aircraft, another 40 people are planned to be trained next year.
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