Local authorities in Khanty-Mansi reg fail to cope with fires --

TYUMEN, May 22 (Itar-Tass) -- Heads of local governments in the
Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area, Siberia, fail to work properly to cope with
fires, the region's Governor Natalia Komarova said on Saturday at a
meeting of the permanent commission of the council for local government
development.
It is shown by the results of inspections in the municipal Kondinsky
area alone, the governor noted. Forests in the region are afire. They are
burning seriously, she said. Several residential areas are already in the
risk zone. "We will have to fight for villages, literally to take war
actions. It is inadmissible," she stressed.
According to the head of the Russian Emergencies Ministry's department
in the autonomous area, Alexander Tirtoki, most of the fires have raged in
the Kondinsky district -- 92 outbreaks since the beginning of the warm
season. The blaze destroyed 3,500 hectares of forests, 56 percent of the
total fire-hit area in the region.
The situation is similar in the Khanty-Mansiisk, Nefteyugansk,
Oktyabrsky, Sovetsky and Surgut districts. In the three weeks of May,
forest fires have closely approached the village of Yarki. In the village
of Mulymya, the Kondinsky district, a fence and a construction near a
house caught fire before firemen arrived there. Firefighters managed to
stop the blaze at a distance of 100 metres from the village of Kama.
Out of 102 residential sites on the forest fire threat list, 75 are
not ready for the fire hazard season, the April inspection results showed.
The situation has not radically changed by the present, the governor's
press service reports. A total of 440 cases of violations of the fire
safety regulations have been reported in the municipalities.
The governor said the inspection materials would be turned over to the
prosecutor's office.