Forest and peat fires in Russia in 2010

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The satellite image shows smoke over central Russia (August 4, 2010)
Areas affected by fire (as of July 31)
Heat wave, temperatures on July 31, 2010

According to official information, the large-scale forest and peat fires in Russia in July and August 2010 claimed at least 50 deaths, with aid organizations assuming more victims. In Moscow alone, 10,900 more people died in July and August than in the same period last year, according to scientists. On August 22nd, the Russian government downgraded the alarm so that by the end of August only one of the previous seven regions was considered endangered.

Firefighters extinguish one of the forest fires near Orechowo-Sujewo , August 5, 2010

course

In total, an estimated 700 fires burned on an area of ​​up to 188,500 hectares between Karelia , Voronezh and the region southeast of Moscow .

President Medvedev therefore declared a state of emergency in seven regions . One can only speculate about the number of people injured and those left homeless by the fire. At times there were over 240,000 civil rescue workers and over 2,000 members of the army, as well as 54 fire-fighting planes . In the meantime, the forest fires also threatened a nuclear research center near the city of Sarov, about 400 km southeast of Moscow. Furthermore, large peat fires raged in the moorlands around Moscow, which had further exacerbated the situation. From the end of June to mid-August 2010, large parts of Russia experienced the greatest heat since weather records began 130 years ago. On August 2nd, 44 degrees Celsius was measured in the city of Voronezh . The rapid spread of the fires was facilitated by the dry, peaty subsoil. At the beginning of August, Ryazan was hardest hit, but on August 9th, 75 fires were registered in the Khanty and Mansi Autonomous Okrug , which was well ahead of Ryazan (38) and Moscow (28). The analysis of images from NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites showed a reduction from 564 to 442 fires on August 9, 2010. On August 14, 2010, 368 forest and peat fires were still registered in Russia.

Deficiencies in disaster control and forest supervision

Under Vladimir Putin's presidency , the protection of Russia's vast forests was decentralized and relaxed for economic purposes. In 2007 forest supervision was privatized and 70,000 forest rangers were dismissed for reasons of rationalization. According to the WWF , surveillance flights and the use of so-called “ fire jumpers ”, which are supposed to fight fires at an early stage, have also continuously declined since 2007 .

According to WWF, the peat fires are also related to the fact that swamps were drained to a large extent, particularly in the European part of Russia, in order to mine peat and use it as fuel or export it to Central Europe as raw material for gardening.

Hazard from toxic substances

The same street in Moscow (uliza Aivazovskogo) in June 2010 (left) and with smog as a result of the forest fires in August 2010 (right)
Visibility below 50 meters on August 6, 2010, Moscow Domodedovo Airport

The fires caused harmful high concentrations of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide in parts of Russia . In the capital Moscow , smoke spread so far in early August that residents were warned not to leave their homes. The smoke sometimes only allowed visibility up to 50 meters and penetrated into the subway shafts. Foreign embassy staff have been partially evacuated, and the governments (including the German Foreign Office ) issued travel warnings to Russia. Air traffic was severely impaired at the three international Moscow airports due to poor visibility.

The disaster control ministry in Moscow also warned that the fires could spread to the Bryansk Oblast , especially in the south to the Novosybkov region . The region was badly contaminated with the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in April 1986. In the worst case, fire could have released radioactive substances again here. Disaster control minister Sergei Shoigu warned that radioactive particles ( radionuclides ) could rise with the smoke and irradiate further areas with nuclear precipitation . The same applied to the Mayak nuclear facility in the southern Urals, which the forest fires had approached dangerously. On August 8, disaster control minister Sergei Shoigu ordered intensified firefighting near the Sneschinsk research center (where nuclear weapons are planned and maintained), about 80 kilometers north of Chelyabinsk in the Urals .

Economic impact

With an export volume of around 22 million tons, Russia is one of the world's largest grain exporters . Due to the destruction of grain caused by the ongoing fires, further crop failures and price speculation, the world market prices for grain, especially wheat , rose rapidly from July 2010 onwards. On August 5, the Russian government announced that an export ban on grain would apply in Russia from August 15, which was only lifted on July 1 of the following year. Due to the fires, the 2010 grain harvest was around 30 percent lower. The prices for wheat and bread rose by 20 percent and did not return to normal until spring 2011.

Industrial companies, including the automotive industry (including AwtoWAS , Volkswagen in Kaluga ), were also affected and had to limit or stop production.

Global weather conditions as the cause

Omegalage about Russia as well as Pakistan and Central Europe

The extreme heat wave over Russia, the flood catastrophe in Pakistan and the floods in the border triangle Germany / Poland / Czech Republic were causally linked by a weather situation called omegalage . A high pressure area over Russia that had been stable for weeks attracted warm air from the south. In the low pressure areas to the west and east of it, there were stable bad weather conditions with unusually high levels of precipitation.

See also

Web links

Commons : Forest fires in Russia  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Barriopedro et al .: The Hot Summer of 2010: Redrawing the Temperature Record Map of Europe [1] (PDF; 6.7 MB) . Accessed July 30, 2012.
  2. ^ Forest fires in Russia: At least 50 dead so far , Die Presse , August 5, 2010. Accessed August 5, 2010.
  3. ↑ Fire Information for Resource Management System : Detected fires  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the region of south-western Russia in the period July-August (interactive map) .@1@ 2Template: dead link / firefly.geog.umd.edu  
  4. ↑ lenta.ru .
  5. ↑ online-presseportal.com , date.
  6. ↑ Fires threaten the atomic center , In: Kölner RS ​​August 3, 2010.
  7. ↑ Medvedev declares an emergency due to fires ( Memento from August 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), tagesschau.de , August 3, 2010.
  8. ↑ Tagesschau: Peat feeds the devastating flames ( memento from August 13, 2010 on WebCite ), August 4, 2010.
  9. ↑ Number of forest fires in Russia has decreased, Rianovosti, August 9, 2010 .
  10. ↑ http://www.waldportal.org/aktuell/news/news.taiga.20100809/ .
  11. ↑ http://de.rian.ru/environment_disaster/20100814/257104756.html .
  12. ↑ Russia is burning: Wirtschaftsblatt.at: Flammeninferno finally out of control ( Memento from August 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), August 5, 2010.
  13. ↑ a b WWF: Inadequate forest management aggravates the Russian forest fire ferno ( memento of the original from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , DailyNet Service, August 4, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dailynet.de
  14. ↑ Russia.ru: Russia is groaning under heat record and fire ( Memento of the original from October 30, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , August 5, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / russland.ru
  15. ↑ 300 new fires in 24 hours on ORF from August 8, 2010 accessed on August 8, 2010.
  16. ↑ Tagesschau: Fires in Russia are approaching radioactively contaminated areas ( Memento from August 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), August 6, 2010.
  17. ↑ Handelsblatt August 9, 2010: Flames threaten Mayak nuclear power plant .
  18. ↑ Zeit.de August 9, 2010: Russia imposes an emergency on the nuclear facility .
  19. ↑ Russia Stops Grain Export , Die Presse, August 5, 2010. Retrieved August 5, 2010.
  20. ^ Voice of Russia : No reason to continue the embargo , message dated May 30, 2011. Accessed May 30, 2011.
  21. ↑ SF Tagesschau August 8, 2010: Fires and floods: Extreme weather conditions are interrelated .