86 wildfires extinguished in Russia over past day

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - The Russian authorities said on Friday that 86 wildfires were extinguished in 22 regions over the past day.

The Aerial Forest Protection Service said in a statement that the total area affected by the fires mounted to almost 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres).

By Thursday midnight, 190 forest fires have been active in Russia on an area of almost 310,000 hectares (766,000 acres) with the largest area recorded in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), where 65 fires on over 220,400 hectares (544,600 acres) are burning, it said.

Most of the wildfires take place in Russia's Siberia region due to hot and dry weather.