Russian emergency officials report success in battling wildfires
By APThursday, August 12, 2010
Russia manages to reduce number of wildfires
MOSCOW — Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry says its teams have managed to reduce the size of wildfires around Moscow and other regions in western Russia.
The ministry said Thursday that the area engulfed by fires around the capital has shrunk by more than quarter over the past 24 hours. It said emergency teams have also managed to significantly reduce the size of fires in other parts of Russia.
The ministry said all wildfires in areas contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster have been quickly extinguished and radiation levels have remained normal.
Environmentalists and forest experts have warned that radioactive particles left over from the Chernobyl catastrophe could be thrown into the air by wildfires and blown into other areas by the wind.
