Forty-five forest fires have started in the Irkutsk region in an area of 415 hectares in the first days of May. Taiga is on fire in 15 districts, the regional department of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations told Itar-Tass on Sunday. The largest number of fires - five in each - has been registered in the Kuitunsky and Osinsky districts, four - in the Ziminsky and Tulunsky, and three - in the Bokhansky, Zalarinsky and Erikhit-Bulagatsky districts each. “As these districts are predominantly agricultural it is not ruled out that the main cause of fires is kindling of dry grass in the fields adjacent to forestland,” the emergencies department officials noted. A total of 223 fires have already been registered in the green belt of the Baikal area since the beginning of the fire hazard season that this year started earlier than usual - in the first ten-day period of April. According to the territorial base of aviation protection of forests, the fire swept 2,418 hectares of taiga.
