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At Least 25 People Killed In Russian Forest Fire

(RTTNews) - Forest fires spread in Central Russia has killed at least 25 people and left thousands homeless. Officials reportedly said the worst blazes were under control, but evacuations continued. President Dmitry Medvedev has summoned the army to join the rescue work.

The hot summer is said to be a key factor for the outbreak of fire, which dried land and ignited the peat bogs spread all over central Russia.

An Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman stated that nationwide, fire has destroyed around 1,200 homes. The Voronezh and Nizhny Novgorod provinces were reported to be worst affected.

The Ministry has dispatched additional firefighting units and 16 aircraft and helicopters to fight wildfires in five regions of Central Russia.

As per reports, Sergei Shaposhnikov, the head of the civil defense department at the Emergency Situations Ministry said that the weather forecast has made him pessimistic about the possibility of an improvement of the situation in the near future.