The battle against forest and peat bog fires around Russia was starting to show progress, with firefighters able to extinguish fires in several regions, DPA quoted Moscow officials as saying Sunday. The Civil Defence Ministry was cited by the Interfax agency as saying that at the same time, however, more than 250 new fires had broken out over the past 24 hours. With Russia still suffering from ongoing heat and dry conditions, some 200,000 hectares of land were currently ablaze. The ministry said that at least the fires in the region around the nuclear research centre in Sarov, some 400 kilometres east of Moscow, had been completely extinguished by soldiers and fire department personnel. Earlier Sunday, Echo Moskwy radio reported that a number of diplomats, embassy employees and their families have begun leaving Moscow due to the toxic smog enveloping the city from the wildfires. It said the embassies of Poland, Austria and Canada had sent a number of their personnel and their families home. The development came after Civil Defence Ministry officials reported Saturday that poisonous carbon monoxide levels in Moscow had risen to more than six times the maximum safety limit. Visibility in places was below 50 metres. Other countries, such as the United States, Britain, France and Germany, had so far only advised their citizens against making any non-essential trips into areas hit by forest and peat bog fires.
