The overall area of wildfires raging across Russia has increased in the past 24 hours, while their number has gone slightly down, a spokesman for the Russian Emergencies Ministry said on Tuesday. "As compared with the previous day, the wildfire area has augmented by 1,673.4 hectares, while their overall number has decreased by three," Itar-Tass quoted the spokesman as saying. According to the spokesman, a total of 164 new fires on an area of some 16,000 hectares have been registered in the past 24 hours. A total of 167 fires on an area of 14,300 hectares have been extinguished. Fires are still ravaging on an area exceeding 270 hectares, while fires on an area of 37,000 have been contained, the spokesman said. Since the beginning of this year's fire season, a total of 11,061 wildfires on a area of 617,700 hectares have been registered across Russia, or thrice as much as in the same period last year.
