Fire risk in Kazakhstan remains high this year. The country has already recorded 42 spring forest fires, which covered 668 hectares. In 2021, the fire embraced 167,000 hectares of the forest. The damage totaled six billion tenge then, Kazakh Minister of Emergency Situations Yuri Ilyin said at the Government’s meeting. He spoke about the preventive measures carried out by the security services. The fire inspectorate will complete surveys of national parks and reserves until the end of May. Regular aerial surveillance has been launched to find fire outbreaks as well.
“According to the Kazhydromet meteorological service, the average temperature will be at 30 degrees during the upcoming fire-hazardous period. It forecasts aridity and rainfall deficit with a rise in temperature up to 40 degrees in southern, eastern and western parts of the country. All this will certainly pose greater risk of forest fires, and accordingly, fires in forest and steppes inclusively. All regions have already begun to take preventive measures. Fire service staff of the Emergencies Ministry resumed monitoring of farms, as well as instructing employees and employers,” said Yuri Ilyin, Kazakh Minister of Emergency Situations.
However, the complete readiness of the forestry institutions of the regions for the fire-hazardous season is out of the question, Ilyin said. The cause is the deterioration of equipment, wherein every fifth is not prepared for fire suppression. The similar situation with fire safety remains in the steppe areas, he noted.
Translation by Saniya Sakenova
Editing by Saule Mukhamejanova
