Over the past 24 hours, 322 new forest and peat fires broke out in Russia, and most of them have been extinguished, a Russian Emergencies Ministry source told Itar-Tass. Over the past day, 290 new forest fire outbreaks were reported in the country, and 244 of them have been extinguished. At present, 577 fires continue to burn on more than 193,500 hectares. The day before, 558 fires raged over more than 179,500 hectares, the source said. Thirty two new peat fires were also reported. Seven of them are put out. At present, 32 peat fires continue to burn. The most difficult situation is in the Moscow Region where 26 peat fires are burning. The capital again is shrouded in thick smoke this Saturday. Visibility on Moscow roads is minimal. There are two peat bog fires in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, and the Ivanovo, Kaluga, Tver and Pskov regions each has one such fire. According to the Emergencies Ministry, 25,280 wild fires have been reported in Russia in 2010, 20 percent more than in the same period of last year. Over the time, 1,001 peat fires have been reported, 4.2 times more than last year. More than 161,000 people and more than 26,000 units of machines, including 56 aircraft, have worked to fight forest fires.
