A woman raises her hands to her face, walking away from a scene filled with heavy smoke and fire near Vyksa, Russia on July 29, 2010. (REUTERS/Mikhail Voskresensky)
Last month, (click here) Russia endured the hottest July ever recorded since records began 130 years ago. The intense heat and drought affecting central Russia has been drying out trees and peat marshes, which have been catching fire recently, burning forests, fields and houses across a massive region. Some 500 new fires have been reported in the last 24 hours alone, and a mobilization of hundreds of thousands of emergency workers is underway to combat them. President Dmitry Medvedev has now declared a state of emergency in seven regions. To date, over 1,500 homes have been destroyed and 40 lives have been lost. as wildfires continue across over 300,000 acres.
In the beginning there were reports of 50 dead. Only 50 dead, these things happen after all. By Amie Ferris-Rotman
MOSCOW, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The Russian government (click here) warned on Thursday that the country's deadliest wildfires in nearly four decades posed a nuclear threat if they are not contained, as the death toll rose to 50 and the blazes continued to spread.
The worst heatwave in more than a century is set to intensify on Friday, with record temperatures of 40 celsius (104 fahrenheit) expected and to continue into the next week, weather forecasters said....
The Russian health care system was stressed and the final count of the dead from the Russia Wildfires of 2010 is 56,000 people. This count came from Munish Re, an insurance company.
The deaths of 56,000 people are attributed to the effects of the wildfires. Never in the USA or Australia has there been such devastation.
