In northern Irkutsk region, forest fire area has decreased from 83 to 69 thousand hectares. Authorities propose keeping an enhanced air group to patrol the taiga and respond quickly to new fires, and to investigate causes more thoroughly, including possible arson. They also discuss using forest cleanup funds to increase air patrol hours.

In the forests in the north of the Irkutsk Region, over the past several days there has been a positive trend toward reducing the total area of active fires. This was reported by the Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the region, Oleg Kravchuk.
According to Oleg Kravchuk, as of July 24 there were 36 forest fires in the region covering an area of 69,000 hectares; a day earlier, 83,000 hectares of forest were burning. For further stabilization of the forest fire situation in the northern territories of the region, the minister proposed keeping the current aviation group there for aerial patrols of the taiga and rapid response by parachute firefighting forces to newly emerging small fire outbreaks. At present, the aviation group, based in Kachug and Erbogachen, consists of 224 parachute firefighters from the federal institution Avialesookhrana and 220 employees of the Irkutsk aviation base for forest protection, as well as two helicopters from the Russian Emergencies Ministry and the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Deputy Head of the Federal Forestry Agency Andrey Zhilin proposed using the 190 million rubles allocated to the Irkutsk Region for sanitary clearing of forest areas to increase the number of flight hours for forest patrols. The causes of forest fires that occurred through human fault will be thoroughly analyzed. According to available facts, cases have been recorded in the region of deliberate arson of forests in order to later obtain government contracts for sanitary logging of areas affected by fire.
Sergey Eroshchenko believes that sanitary clearing of forests should be handled by state institutions. For this purpose, it is planned to restore the abolished forestry enterprises in the region, especially since regions now have this right, enshrined in federal legislation.
Summing up the discussion of this issue, Sergey Donskoy called for all measures to be taken to stabilize the forest fire situation in the Irkutsk Region as quickly as possible. The minister said that the reserve parachute firefighters of Rosleskhoz currently deployed in the Angara region are being awaited in Yakutia, where forests are now burning over an area of more than 500,000 hectares.
Based on materials from the press service of the Government of the Irkutsk Region.