The number of forest fires in the Tomsk Region has increased to 41. In addition to ground equipment, the extinguishing operation involves an AN-26 Cyclone sounding aircraft of the IrAero airline, which managed to cause nine artificial rains over the burning forests, the natural precipitation has no effect, according to the press service of the regional administration.
The aircraft arrived from Irkutsk on June 7 and is operating in the sky over the Kargasoksky District. The choice of the area to use AN-26 is conditioned by cloudiness: temperature, wind and density of the clouds are important. The task of the observer pilot and the pilots is to carry out activities to artificially induce precipitation to extinguish fires that are difficult to access. Silver iodide pyro cartridges are loaded into special panels on the fuselage of the aircraft. When the pilot-observer reaches the required altitude, he fires shots to condense the moisture.
“Suitable clouds are required precisely where the fires are developing. After the injection of reagents, precipitation occurs within 30 minutes. Over 9 of the 11 fires worked the day before, it rained a little, but it contributed to decrease the intensity of combustion,” said Andrey Yeritsov, deputy head of Aviaforestry.
According to the specialists, a similar deficit of precipitation in the Tomsk region was observed about 100 years ago. At the moment the weather conditions are atypical for the beginning of summer. The work of extinguishing the fire is complicated by a powerful thunderstorm front and high temperatures. Natural precipitation is not having the desired effect.
There is only one Cyclone sounding aircraft at the disposal of the federal service. According to the decision of the central headquarters it is sent to the most difficult areas. An-26 will be operating in the Tomsk Region until the forest-fire situation is stabilized.
According to the Forestry Department of the Tomsk Region five forest fires in the territory of Kozhevnikovsky, Kargasoksky, and Aleksandrovsky districts with the total area of 633 hectares were extinguished during the previous day. At present there are 41 forest fires in the region (the day before there were 14). The fires are being extinguished by 525 people and 66 vehicles.
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