The AmeriKan MSM has implied the heat; however, hot weather does not make things spontaneously combust.
"Smoke engulfs Russian capital as fires blaze on; Flights halted, patients treated" by Jim Heintz, Associated Press | August 7, 2010
MOSCOW — A miasma of smoke from wildfires cloaked the sweltering Russian capital yesterday, turning the city’s spires into ominous blurs and grounding flights while glum pedestrians trudged the streets with faces hidden by surgical masks and water-soaked bandanas.
The smoke crept into many buildings, hovering around the ceiling in entryways. The State Historical Museum on Red Square was forced to close because it could not stop its smoke detectors from going off.
Airborne pollutants such as carbon monoxide were four times higher than average readings — the worst to date in Moscow, city health officials reported. The concentration appeared likely to intensify; the state news agency Itar-Tass reported smoke was thickening in the city’s southeast late yesterday.
The fires, which are raging across much of western Russia, blazed after weeks of extraordinary heat — daily highs of up to 100 compared with the summer average of 75 — and practically no rain. At least 52 people have died and 2,000 homes have been destroyed in the blazes.
Okay, that removes lightning strikes.
How did the fires start?
Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev said yesterday that there is no water shortage because officials had kept reservoir levels high. But he noted that river levels are down by more than 20 percent, because of increased demands for water to battle the fires and practically no water flowing in.
The fires drew comment from officials and activists at international climate-change talks in Bonn.
The chief US delegate said Russia’s situation and the recent floods that have devastated Pakistan are “consistent with the kind of changes we would expect to see from climate change and they will only get worse unless we act quickly.’’
The AGENDA-PUSHING NEVER ENDS!!!!
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As a precaution, Russian workers evacuated explosives from military facilities and sent aircraft and even robots to help control blazes around a nuclear research facility in Sarov, 300 miles east of Moscow.That raises concerns that may merit more than an afterthought of a paragraph maybe, MSM?
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And why is it governments are good at making wars but lousy at protecting their people?
"Fires stoke anger with Russian government; Country woefully unprepared for crisis, some say" by Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times | August 8, 2010
OREKHOVO-ZUYEVO, Russia — Anger at his government for failing to provide even the most minimal assistance.
We know how you feel in that regard, Russians.
In this summer of extreme heat, drought, crop failures, and, now, a nationwide eruption of wildfires, the Russian government is facing a rare upwelling of popular anger....
Related: Russian Fires Threaten Food Supply
And as the acres burn and the damage mounts, the government is being tested at all levels and, quite often, found lacking. After decades of institutional inertia and official corruption, opposition figures here say, the government’s capacity to respond to crises has been severely eroded, a fact that has emerged starkly in recent days.
The Russian government is the spitting image of yours, AmeriKa!!
Of course, your state media makes it sound like government is the solution to all your problems and they get the job done (think gulf gusher cover-up).
When the wildfires broke out, stoked by the hottest weather here since record-keeping began more than 130 years ago, officials and the Russian news media reported that firefighters found that access roads to the forests were overgrown and in poor repair, that ponds intended to provide water for refilling their tanks were filled with sludge, and that their firetrucks frequently broke down.
And HOW did those fires break out?
The paper says "stoked" by the hot weather; however, HEAT in and of itself does NOT START a FIRE! It may wither crops and kill plant life, but it DOES NOT START a FIRE BY ITSELF!
Local officials have also cast blame on a revised 2006 forest code that allowed logging companies to contract out firefighting operations rather than maintaining their own. When the fires broke out, the contractors were woefully unprepared and inadequately equipped, said Viktor N. Sorokhin, a deputy head of administration for the Orekhovo-Zuyevo district, about 50 miles east of Moscow.
Sounds familiar doesn't it, American?
Critics have noted that Ilim Pulp, a timber company half owned by
Oh, the Russians have business corruption just like us?
To deflect mounting criticism, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin has been meeting fire victims and giving generous handouts to those who have lost homes. On Thursday, he banned grain exports to tamp down concern of shortages or rising prices.
Food costs will be shooting up quick.
Medvedev, meanwhile, said he had established a private charitable fund for wildfire victims with an initial donation of about $12,000 of his own money.
Thick smog from the wildfires continued to blanket Moscow yesterday, raising the concentration of dangerous pollutants to a new high, officials said. Residents wore masks outdoors and more flights were delayed or diverted at the city’s airport.
Russians typically suffer far more from fires and fire damage than people in most other developed countries. In 2006, for example, more than 17,000 people died in fires here, nearly 13 for every 100,000 people. That is about 10 times the rates in Western Europe and the United States."Only" 52 have died so far this year -- and they are doing a bad job?
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Update: Radiation, plague, and fires: foreign embassies urgently evacuate staff from Russia
Smoke Cloud Covers Moscow - Authorities Warn of Radioactive Cloud
That is something the MSM isn't telling us, fellow American.
How many other things are they concealing?
