MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th July, 2019) Over 50 forest fires covering over 6,000 hectares (14,800 acres) of Russia's territory were put out over the past 24 hours, Russia's Aerial Forest Protection Service (Avialesookhrana ) said Saturday.
"Based on information [the service] received from forest rangers, over the past 24 hours ... 51 forest fires have been put out over 6,879 hectares of Russia's territory," Avialesookhrana said in a statement.
The service noted that as of 12:00 a.m. local time (21:00 GMT), there are a total of 164 forest fires covering the acreage of over 170,000 hectares in Russia. Over the past 24 hours, their acreage has increased by 163,000 hectares.
The majority of fires have been reported in the Irkutsk region.
