Wildfires ravage Russian nature reserve
Nearly 150 firefighters have been deployed to tackle wildfires at the Denezhkin Kamen nature reserve in Russia's Ural Region, according to the local emergency ministry.
More than 28,000 feet of fire-control lines have been created to halt the spread of the fire, the ministry said in a statement on Friday (July 31).
The fire in the nature reserve has so far covered an area of 120 hectares.
Sweltering heat and dry weather have helped wildfires spread across a number of Russian regions, reaching into the boreal forest and tundra that blanket northern Russia.
The high temperatures over northern Russia have not only fuelled massive wildfires, but they've also set normally moist peat bogs ablaze and thawed permafrost - adding to worry over the potential impact on the global climate of rapid shifts in the Arctic.
