As of May 11, several forest fires had been extinguished in two forest districts of the Slovechansky Forestry. The fires destroyed nearly 250 hectares of land.
This was reported by "Suspilne," citing a statement by Yuriy Melnyk, a communications officer at the "Capital Forest Office" branch of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine."
Forest rangers had to use drones to pinpoint the exact location of the fires. The drones provided a more accurate understanding of the fires’ extent. Specifically, in the Lystvyn Forest District, the fire covered 161 hectares, and in the Velydnytsia Forest District, it affected two areas of 39 and 44 hectares.
"Foresters, together with rescue workers and local services, worked to extinguish the fires for four consecutive days. The situation was complicated by the working conditions," said Yuriy Melnyk.
The natural landscape posed an obstacle to the emergency responders’ work. In particular, the roads here are too narrow, and the terrain is interspersed with swamps. An additional danger was the risk of the fire spreading. However, the fire has now been brought under control.
Also in the Zhytomyr region, efforts continued to extinguish a large-scale fire in the same Slovechansky Forest District, which covered about 500 hectares.
Source: State Emergency Service of Zhytomyr Region
EcoPolitic had previously reported a series of forest fires that damaged Ukrainian ecosystems. For example, in the north of Chernihiv region, 2,400 ha of forests burned. Vegetation caught fire due to shelling, and again, because of the ongoing attacks, foresters were unable to reach the flames to extinguish them.
For almost three days, firefighters, foresters, and local residents fought a fire in the Mukachevo district of Zakarpattia. In that area, the blaze was intensified by abnormally dry conditions.
As a reminder, it is often human negligence that causes ecosystem fires. You can read here about fines for burning dry vegetation.
