Russian pres, premier adjust workschedules as fires rage.

MOSCOW, July 31 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday scrambled to adjust their
workschedules to personally supervise the measures to combat the wildfires
in the central part of the country and eliminate their aftermath.
According to the Emergency Situations Ministry, 1,170 houses have
burnt down leaving 2,187 people homeless in the Central and Volga Federal
Districts since the beginning of the hot spell. The worst-hit areas are
the Voronezh, Ryazan, and Moscow regions. Fires claimed at least 21 lives.
The death toll includes two firefighters.
Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu arrived in the Nizhny
Novgorod region on Thursday night to coordinate the fire-fighting efforts.
On Friday, the president had a series of telephone conversations with
Voronezh region governor Alexey Gordeyev, Nizhny Novgorod governor Valery
Shantsev and Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu, Medvedev's
spokeswoman Natalia Timakova said. The governors reported on the measures
to extinguish fires, evacuate people from the most dangerous areas, and
provide assistance to the victims.
Vladimir Putin arrived in the Vyksun district, which suffered the
heaviest damage, on Friday morning. He inspected the conditions of the
accommodation of the evacuated people and talked with residents of the
once large village Verkhnyaya Vereya. The 341-house village burnt to ashes
on Thursday.
The premier promised that the village would be rebuilt by the
beginning of winter, and that he would personally supervise the
construction of new housing.
"All the houses will have been built by winter. I promise you: the
village will be rebuilt," Putin told the homeless fire victims, adding
that money would be allocated for housing and infrastructure.
Federal budget allocations for fire victims will make up 100,000
roubles per person, while regional budgets will contribute 100,000 roubles
per person. The families of the fatalities will be paid 1 million roubles
per fatality.
After the talk with fire victims, the premier held a telephone
conference with regional leaders and demanded that construction of new
houses be launched immediately.
"The main thing is to rebuild houses by winter. I request you to
organize construction immediately. There's much red tape in it, and it
should be overcome. As for houses, we'll allocate each region 3 million
roubles from the federal budget," Putin said.
The heads of municipalities in the fire-hit regions, whose performance
drew complaints of local residents, must resign. "I recommend the head of
the municipalities regarding whom citizens have big doubts, to step down;
the governors must set up working groups and headquarters led by their
deputies which should handle interaction with the citizens," the premier
minister said.
Putin said Russia had registered 21,690 fires since the beginning of
the hot spell, up 1.1. times from the previous year. Fires are raging in
the Lipetsk, Voronezh, Tula, Tambov, Belgorod, Vladimir, Ivanovo, Ryazan,
Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Ulyanovsk and Kirov regions, as well as in
Mordovia and Tatarstan.
The emergency situations minister reported to Putin that the
firefighting effort in the Central and Volga Federal Districts involves
238,000 people and 25,000 units of equipment. Additional equipment is
arriving from the Ural region, and sending a firefighting taskforce from
the Siberian Federal District is under consideration.
The president, upon hearing the prime minister's report on the current
situation, ordered the Cabinet to take additional urgent measures to put
out fires in a number of regions and help the victims, and step up fire
safety, and prevention of fires. Medvedev said he was expecting the
soonest proposals to purchase additional fire-fighting equipment and
develop a comprehensive program to quickly respond to such situations.
The army has been enlisted to help combat fires. "As for using the
armed forces, I sanction it, let them help with what they can," Medvedev
said in a telephone conversation with Putin.
The Ministry of Public Health and Social Development was ordered to
provide the necessary assistance to homeless fire victims and ensure a
normal sanitary-epidemiological situation in trouble areas.
The Regional Development Ministry was ordered to draw housing
construction programs for the fire-hit regions. "I request you to prepare
individual programs for each regions hit by fires, both on temporary
housing and rapidly built permanent house using quality pre-fabricated
materials," the president told Regional Development Minister Viktor
Basargin.
"If additional funding is required, I'm ready to issue the relevant
instruction to the government," Medvedev underlined.
Basargin said one square meter of housing would cost 19,500 roublesor
less. "An average area of one burnt house makes up 80 to 100 square
meters, in all, we've lost 150,000 meters. We can rebuild all this by
yearend, if not by the beginning of the winter," he said.
Medvedev ordered the Prosecutor General's Office to supervise the use
of money to eliminate the aftermath of fires.
Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika ordered to step up supervision over
compliance with fire safety requirements and give legal assessment to
officials' work in ensuring fire safety.
-0-myz


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