In Russia, it is necessary to increase the funding of the fire service so that specialists can eliminate all forest outbreaks without choosing them according to their importance. Igor Shkradyuk, an ecologist, coordinator of the industry greening program of the Center for Wildlife Conservation, an expert of the International Social and Ecological Union, shared this opinion in an interview with URA.RU.
“If you see marks of fires on a satellite image, you will be directly surprised how different their number is on different sides of the border. Unfortunately, the Forest Code of 2005, changes in the budget code have turned the organization “firefighting” into some very strange topic. Moreover, we have such a current that it is not necessary to extinguish fires far from settlements, since they will not reach people anyway. But if you consider that there are winds under 25 meters per second, that is, when a fire spreads at the speed of a train and can overtake a car, then this is a very wrong idea. It is necessary to extinguish everywhere. To do this, you need to finance the fire service. No need to sit and wait,” explained Igor Shkradyuk.
At the same time, the ecologist stressed that when switching to oil and gas pipelines, forest fires can cause an even greater catastrophe. “Forest fires can overtake oil and gas pipelines. We are very lucky so far that they have not burned down the gas fields. They did not lead to the emergence of giant oil and gas flares somewhere. The fire is different – grassroots and riding. Grassroots – this is when small bushes, leaves, grass burn, and the trees remain alive, only the bark burns out. But when the ground fire turns into a top one and 30-meter trees blaze, the spread is faster. The focus becomes stronger, a firestorm arises above it, that is, hot and dusty air rises so that the planes are thrown up. This risk is very rarely assessed,” Shkradyuk added.
Earlier, the chairman of the Public Council under the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, Alexander Zakondyrin, said that now forest fires begin to be extinguished only when the focus approaches settlements. It’s all about financing, since the price of liquidation may exceed the cost of possible economic damage to the forest object.
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2023-08-23 20:05:00
