Raging wildfires spread across parts of western Russia on Saturday, engulfing 30 percent more land in just 24 hours, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin described the situation as very difficult. At least 28 people have been killed and 3,500 evacuated since the fires broke out in the hottest weather since records began 130 years ago. At least 1,260 houses have been burnt down.
The area swept by peat and forest fires rose to more than 1,200 km sq from just over 850 km sq a day earlier, the Emergencies Ministry said. The ministry said it was getting the situation under control and progress was being made in containing some of the most threatening blazes, but Putin said there were no grounds for optimism.
"In separate regions, where we were hit yesterday and the day before with harsh consequences, the situation has slightly improved," Putin said in a televised conference with officials from the region and victims of the fires. "But as a whole, it remains very tense."
A visibly angry Putin told the regional authorities that more could have been done to reduce the destruction caused by the fires, and ordered the governors to rebuild people's burnt-out homes quickly. A state of emergency has been declared in 14 of Russia's 83 federal districts and 240,000 people have been deployed to fight the fires, media and officials said.