Moscow, August 6 (Interfax) - Wildfires raging outside Moscow pose no threat to the city, a senior Emergency Situations Ministry official said on Friday, August 6.
"There is no threat for Moscow. The nearest fire-stricken areas – if one speaks of mass epicenters – are between 30 and 40 kilometers from the capital," Yevgeny Sekirin, head of the ministry department for Moscow, said.
Firefighters have seen evidence to suggest that some of the fires are manmade, he said. "In some places we’ve been coming across cigarette butts or it was obvious that someone had been trying to set fire to a tree."
Sekirin added that economic facilities in Moscow region are not in danger.
"The most serious situation is taking shape in the southeast of the region, in the districts of Orekhovo-Zuyevo, Yegoryevsk, Shatura and Lukhovitsy," the official said.
He said practically all the fires in Balashikha district had been stamped out.
