Russia evacuates 2 villages in Siberia because of wildfires

Russian authorities have started to evacuate two villages in a vast region of Siberia where 155 active forest fires are burning

MOSCOW -- Russian authorities started to evacuate two villages in a vast region of Siberia where 155 active forest fires burned Sunday. A dozen villages in northeastern Siberia’s Sakha-Yakutia republic were threatened by the fires, according to the regional task force dealing with the emergency. Local authorities were moving the residents of two villages, Kalvitsa and Kharyyalakh, to other inhabited areas as crews totaling 3,600 people worked to contain about half of the blazes. On Saturday, flames destroyed 31 houses and eight maintenance buildings in another village, Byas-Kuel, and about 400 residents were evacuated, local officials said. Yakutia governor Aysen Nikolayev ordered officials to clear fire trails around the endangered settlements of dead wood and fallen trees. Yakutia's government website had stated earlier that Nikolayev had a deforestation of areas around the endangered villages, but his spokespeople said it was a mistake and there has been no such order.