Updated on
Summary A state of emergency in two Russian regions was declared, following the spread of forest fires.
Television pictures showed helicopter and rescue service crews battling blazes and smoke, in a reminder of last years fires and smog, which killed dozens of people across the country.Firefighters from Russias Emergency Ministry were deployed to extinguish fires smouldering in remote parts of Arkhangelsk Region and the north-eastern Yakutia region.During a record heatwave last summer, Russian authorities struggled with peat and forest fires that destroyed a quarter of the countrys crops and engulfed Moscow in a cloud of hazardous acrid smoke.Wildfires devastated forests across a huge swathe of European Russia in August 2010, but Russias top forecaster said he did not expect the extreme drought which gave rise to last years fires, to be repeated this year.
