It's FUCKING APRIL, And 152,000 Hectares Of Russia/Siberia Is On Fire - BTW, Warmest Winter Ever

[hatrack]

There were desperate pleas for volunteer firefighters in Chita last night as flames threatened to ravage the outskirts of the city, with one eye-witness warning of a 'wall' of fire. Deep into the night, residents came to counter the flames. One volunteer Alexey Kuzubov pleaded dramatically on social media site Vkontakte: 'The situation is very bad on the hill now! Anyone who wants, who can help come here !!! Now the fire in the 2-3 km from the ring road ~' 'Hills are burning, all goes to the city !!!! Very little of us here!!!'

Another volunteer Nikolay Fedotov said: 'Hard to say, how far away the fire is away from the city ... Think the distance is two or three kilometers from one part of the city. Now going there again. Came to the city to refuel, take drinking water. 'Very difficult now. About 100 volunteers (maybe less) and about a dozen pieces of fire equipment went there. Fire is like a wall. Hard to stop it. Most of people are trying to fill up the fire with shovels'.









EDIT

http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2015/03/the-winter-of-2014-2015-was-warmest-on.html

President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the federal government would send at least 5 billion rubles ($100 million) to the southern Siberian republic of Khakasia, ravaged by wildfires in recent weeks.

"I talked with the governor today. … About 2,400 homes need to be rebuilt. This will require money from the federal budget, about 5 or 6 billion rubles," Putin said during his annual call-in show, according to the Interfax news agency.

Dozens of people have died and about a thousand have sought medical attention because of the fires, linked to small agricultural brushfires that grew out of control amid abnormally dry conditions, according to local authorities.

On the same day, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's Cabinet allocated almost 700 million rubles ($14 million) in aid to Khakasia.

EDIT

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/beyond_moscow/news/article/putin-pledges-100-million-in-aid-to-fire-ravaged-southern-siberia/519260.html

[daleanime]

1. kick, kick, kick....

[jeff47]

2. For the non-metrically-inclined, that 375,000 acres.

Or about 1/2 of Rhode Island.

Or about 14 New York Cities.

[phantom power]

3. That's nice

The goddamned ground is on fire.

[truebrit71]

4. That's um.... really NOT good....

...

[mackdaddy]

5. Really creepy- some of those photos look like cemeteries burning

A related video at this post is stunning too:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/112784193