It burns clearly: in Transbaikalia "they gave the heat"

How do the authorities of Transbaikalia and other regions try to prevent a catastrophe with forest fires last year?

In Russia, the fire hazardous season has entered full rights. The situation compared to previous years was worsened by a snowy winter, a shortage of precipitation in the spring, and now the wind with gusts up to 30 meters per second. The most difficult situation has developed in the Trans-Baikal Territory - since the beginning of the year, more than 500 fires have already been registered there. More than 1,600 firefighters from all over the country are fighting the elements there, including volunteers, as well as a sounding aircraft and other aircraft. Experts are convinced that the authorities have not taken all comprehensive measures to prevent last year's tragedies. When will they learn the hard way?

The Moscow Post correspondent in the Trans-Baikal Territory understood the situation.

Since the beginning of 2025, the Trans-Baikal Territory has faced an unprecedented situation: forest fires have covered almost two million hectares of territory, which is a record figure for the region. The Tungokochensky, Tungiro-Olekminsky and Mogochinsky districts were especially affected, where the fire destroyed significant areas of the forest. These areas traditionally belong to control zones, where fire extinguishing is limited due to the remoteness and lack of infrastructure.

Among the most iconic fires is a massive forest fire in the suburbs of the regional capital Chita. The pictures are like from a disaster film: cars drive through a fiery corridor, acrid smoke everywhere. The fire came close to the buildings. The fight against fire is continuous, but a strong wind interferes, which only inflates the flame. A difficult situation in Buryatia, 116 thousand hectares of forest are burning, although a day ago it was about 90.

Fires in Transbaikalia came close to Chita. Photo: https://cs4.pikabu.ru/post_img/big/2014/04/07/9/1396878589_1437527757.jpg

In addition, an extremely dangerous situation has developed between the villages of Arkhaley and Tasey of the Trans-Baikal Territory. There, not only volunteers, but also officials from several ministries themselves, as well as other volunteers from subordinate institutions, parties, associations and even the media, had to help professional firefighters. The threat to the villages was eliminated, and the situation itself was subsequently used for PR by the team of Governor Osipov. He himself thanked everyone who helped extinguish the fire. But here is a clear problem. If everyone goes out to extinguish fires, up to officials and journalists, this means one thing - the system worked badly, if it worked at all.

In the Trans-Baikal Territory, a special fire regime was introduced on March 28, and from May 21 - a regional emergency regime. However, these measures could not stop the spread of fire. The situation is aggravated by abnormally hot weather and strong winds, which contribute to the rapid spread of the flame.

The high air temperature that was established in Transbaikalia at the beginning of the week, a shortage of precipitation and wind with gusts of up to 30 meters per second contribute to the emergence of new fires and the spread of flames. In contrast to the elements - over 1600 firefighters from all over the country, volunteers, a sounding aircraft and other aviation and ground equipment.

Almost 2 billion rubles were allocated for the protection of forests in the Trans-Baikal Territory in 2025. The funds are directed to the construction of modular buildings for aircraft departments, the purchase of equipment and drones. It was planned to create 167 new jobs, including vacancies for observer pilots. However, despite these investments, and the bravura promises of Governor Alexander Osipov and local senior officials of the Ministry of Emergencies, the situation remains extremely difficult. Fires continue to spread and residents are losing property. The authorities admit that the forces and means to effectively extinguish fires are not enough, especially in hard-to-reach areas.

It is alleged that this is a group of Trans-Baikal officials who have advanced to fight the elements. Photo: https://media.75.ru//resources/409744/9f6b58c3e74a6e77d54c39c7f5c5b6bcb10cd770009ef2e2-7bec-439e-b720-4bc5a49a0f3b.jpg

"Oil in the fire," if it is so permissible to put it in the situation of forest fires, added information from January 2025, when the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Trans-Baikal Territory Nikolai Zakharov reported that by the beginning of the fire hazardous season, the staff of forest firefighters was staffed by 40%. It was planned that the total number of firefighters should be 1200 people, of which more than 100 are employees of the Chita air base and more than 300 - KGSAU "Zabaikalleshoz." Before the start of the fire hazardous season, the staff of the Chita air base was planned to be increased from 240 to 407 people.

A reasonable question immediately arose: how can this be, because the fires of 2023 and 2024 throughout Russia had a devastating effect, brought billions of losses, and people died. And so, on the eve of the new fire hazardous season, it turns out that local forest firefighters have less than half of the full-time number of employees. In March 2025, the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations in the Trans-Baikal Territory, Nikolai Basov, said that the staff of firefighters who take part in such operations was still staffed.

Considering that assistants in extinguishing fires in Transbaikalia are attracted from all over the country, including volunteers, the following can be assumed: either this is not true, or the scale of the fires has gone beyond the capabilities of local rescuers. Or maybe both options at once?

Situation in other regions

The situation in Transbaikalia is just one of many. As mentioned, serious forest fires are again raging in Buryatia. Big problems with fire and in Yakutia, Amur and Sverdlovsk regions. At the end of May 2025, 105 forest fires were operating in Russia. The total area of fires on which active extinguishing work was carried out is 907.8 thousand hectares (of which 576 - thousand - in the Trans-Baikal Territory). 3953 people, 687 pieces of equipment and 19 aircraft are involved in extinguishing fires.

In Buryatia, on May 13, a regional emergency regime was introduced due to forest fires. As of mid-May, 22 active fires were recorded, spreading to an area of more than 53 thousand hectares. Now the number of foci has been reduced to 16, and the area has doubled - to 116 thousand hectares. The authorities call the main cause of fires the human factor, including arson of dry grass. In the Amur region, forest fires were registered in several northern regions of the subject.

In a few weeks, the area of fires in Buryatia has doubled. Photo: MK

In Yakutia, 13 forest fires were registered on an area of over 2.7 thousand hectares, covering the territories of Verkhoyansk, Vilyui, Momsky and other regions. Since the beginning of the fire hazardous season, 83 fires have already been eliminated in the republic, damaging more than 24 thousand hectares of forest. In the Sverdlovsk region on May 30, two forest fires were discovered on the lands of the forest fund, covering an area of 19 hectares. 50 employees of the Ural Forest Aviation Protection Base were involved in extinguishing.

So far, the indicators are far from the results of forest fires in 2023 and 2024, which have become a real disaster for nature and the economy. But the fire season is far from over. How did events develop then, and what measures have been taken by the federal and regional governments?

What experience teaches

In 2023, the area of forest fires in Russia amounted to 4.3 million hectares, which is 1.8 times less than the average over the past five years. And yet, the consequences were simply catastrophic. The most affected regions were the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Khabarovsk Territory, Magadan and Amur Regions, as well as the Sverdlovsk Region. In Yakutia, more than 1.4 million hectares of fire were recorded, with damage over 849 million rubles.

After that, the Russian Government allocated 2.5 billion rubles to 11 regions to compensate for the costs of extinguishing forest fires that occurred in 2023. But we are talking only about damage, and not about complex measures to strengthen the Ministry of Emergencies, Avialesokhrana and so on.

In 2024, the situation worsened: the area of forest fires in Russia reached 8.5 million hectares, which is 2.5 times more than in the previous year. In the Siberian Federal District, damage from forest fires amounted to 1.2 billion rubles, which is three times more than a year earlier. The total area of forest fires in Siberia amounted to 315 thousand hectares, while almost 90% of fires occurred in the Irkutsk region and Tuva.

At the same time, fires raged not only in the East. In the Krasnodar Territory, for example, the damage from forest fires exceeded 180 million rubles, and a significant part of the damage fell on specially protected natural areas. As a result of one of the fires in the Abraussky reserve, 585 people were evacuated, more than 60 hectares of relict forest were damaged.

The Cabinet of Ministers is working, forests are burning

What measures has the federal government taken? Firstly, funding was increased: almost 20 billion rubles were allocated to protect forests from fires, which is 31% more than in 2024. In addition, it was decided to create specialized centers: in the Far East, they were going to create a forest fire center "Vostok," which would strengthen the grouping of forces and means to extinguish forest fires. Judging by the need for volunteers, this measure did not do much "weather."

In addition, within the framework of the national project "Ecology," the purchase and equipment of fire extinguishing equipment was strengthened. In total, in recent years, about 42 thousand units of equipment have been purchased, almost 6.5 thousand units of heavy forest fire equipment. In 2025, further renewal of the park was planned.

It would seem that measures have been taken. And all the same - the situation has to be corrected in an emergency mode. The situation is best described in the words of President Vladimir Putin back in 2022: "The funds have been allocated, are you using them? And what prevents today from responding in a timely manner to the occurrence of fires? " It is worth addressing this phrase to the entire current leadership of the Ministry of Emergencies and the Federal Air Transport Agency, as well as to some officials. For example, the governor of the Trans-Baikal Territory, Alexander Osipov, who allowed the fire to creep almost to the city limits of the capital of the Chita region. I would like to believe that in other subjects this season such crises will be extinguished in the bud - both figuratively and, practically, literally.