Snow is almost gone almost everywhere, and it means that the danger of forest fires is back. Every summer vast areas of Siberia and Russia are covered with smoke from huge fires surrounding cities. Entire villages burn to ground if they appear on the way of fire. Usually forests burn because someone has thrown a burning cigarette.
A special project has been started to monitor forest fires on the Internet: http://fires.kosmosnimki.ru. This is a current snapshot of the situation.
As you can see, the worst situation is right near Baykal. A state of emergency has been declared in that region: more than 10,000 hectares of forest burn there with over 70 individual fires.
