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[Dwarf]

This is horrific. Even though I wasn't touched by our fires, I was present for it, and I know how bad it gets. A lot of people are still reeling over here. Jesus, it's like that times 100. Deaths reaching 700 a day?. This is insane. I hope our Russian forum members are alright.

Read up. It's not 700/day.

Still bad, though.

[Josephus]

Deon and Sean Mirrsen have yet to chime in on the fire, so perhaps it's not as bad as it looks.

Or perhaps the fire already got them...

That is fantastically helpful, man.

Deon's been posting in his mod threads, so he's (probably) fine.

[Jackrabbit]

This is horrific. Even though I wasn't touched by our fires, I was present for it, and I know how bad it gets. A lot of people are still reeling over here. Jesus, it's like that times 100. Deaths reaching 700 a day?. This is insane. I hope our Russian forum members are alright.

Read up. It's not 700/day.

Still bad, though.

Yeah, somehow I thought that might be a leeeetle bit exaggerated.

[RedKing]

Although I'm continuing to see the 700/day figure repeated in major media. Seems like the source for that figure is one Andrei Seltsovsky, head of the Moscow city health department. Apparently the Russian Health Ministry is disputing the claim:

The Health Ministry criticized Seltsovsky, saying it was "bewildered by these unofficial figures" and that Moscow's death rates had actually fallen in January-June.

Health Minister Tatyana Golikova told a news conference that the heavy smog with the severe heat was "a real test" indeed for Moscow's residents with vascular and heart diseases. But she said she had no data about a rise in Moscow's death rates.

But...there's also indications that the Russian government may be trying to downplay the number of affected:

Many Muscovites have been braving their trips to work, wearing facemasks to try to filter the smoke, but the masks were increasingly hard to find and some doctors raised concerns about an official whitewash of the real impact of the smoke in Moscow.

An unnamed doctor at a Moscow clinic wrote on his Internet site over the weekend that he was wary of diagnosing patients with heat- and smoke-related illnesses for fear of dismissal.

Another doctor at a major hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters on Sunday that senior management had instructed staff not to link patients' illnesses with the heat.

And there's yet another potential disaster looming:

The severe drought and wildfires have destroyed 20 percent of Russia's wheat crop, prompting the government last week to introduce a ban on grain exports for the rest of the year. The news drove the price of wheat, which has already jumped 70 percent on world markets this summer, even higher.

 

[MetalSlimeHunt]

That is fantastically helpful, man.

Deon's been posting in his mod threads, so he's (probably) fine.

I thought Deon lived in St. Petersburg? If so, he isn't in any danger from the fires at all.

[RedKing]

New satellite photo:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I'm guessing the obvious lines represent time zones?

[RedKing]

Satellite passes. Hence each "band" is probably 90 minutes or so apart in time (or whatever the sat's orbital period is)


Interesting bit of background from Wikipedia:

Swamps and bogs surrounding Moscow had been drained in the 1960s for agricultural use and mining of peat to generate energy. In 2002, a series of hard-to-extinguish peat fires led the government to the recognition that peat fields needed to be rewatered to prevent wildfires. By 2010, however, large peat areas that had not been rewatered contributed to the wildfires. Government officials said they could not have anticipated the heatwave that caused the fires. However, critics have blamed complacent officials for ignoring warnings of blazes near villages. Sergey Robaten, Vadim Tatur, and Maksim Kalashnikov argue that the fires and the inability to contain and extinguish them was due to “the inaction of bureaucrats” and Vladimir Putin's elimination of the national fire service in 2007. Putin had transferred responsibility for fighting fires to those renting state property and the subjects of the federation, with the assumption that owners or renters would spend the money necessary to prevent forest fires, however the reality in Russia was that companies were seeking to make quick profits and so neglected forest fire fighting. Putin's spokesman stated "this is a well functioning system which only needs some minor adjustments".

Awesome. Let's surround a major city with dried-out peat fields, and then make firefighting a purely local thing. What could possibly go wrong?

EDIT: Also, when trying to leave a burning village, make sure the road is not on fire.

[Muz]

I read on the front page of Wikipedia AND Yahoo! that deaths are 700/day.

If that isn't true, then I don't know what to believe in anymore. After all, journalists don't lie. It's their job not to.

[ChairmanPoo]

After all, journalists don't lie. It's their job not to.

you forgot to add a sarcasm tag.

[Eugenitor]

Too many journalists get their figures from the same source, which is obviously Andrei.

I take him as a credible source, though. Seven hundred dead a day from HUGE PARTS OF THE COUNTRY BURNING, even in modern times, isn't implausible. We should actually feel lucky the number is that low considering what's going on.

I hope to hell the brushfire hasn't spread here. There almost certainly is radioactive ash right now. If the main Chernobyl area goes, it'll be like it happened all over again- now with somewhat less intensity, but a lot more fallout!

[Sean Mirrsen]

Well, we got our share of fires over here in Tolyatti. Even had a sort of smog. It seems mostly in control by now. We had a few forest roads closed, and general warnings sent through SMS by the cellular operators to stay out of the forests. One of the messages was to the effect of "Stay away from the forest at such-and-such places, firefighting aircraft at work." Knowing some people around here, I'd expect the message would have an effect completely opposite to the intended one. We don't get to see those things too often.

[Eugenitor]

Knowing some people around here, I'd expect the message would have an effect completely opposite to the intended one.

Paging Charles Darwin to the lobby. Charles Darwin to the lobby, please.

[Pillow_Killer]

700 deaths TOTAL. A day. it's not that much. Smoke related deaths? Minusicle, never raises above 15-20. tbh, smoke cleared up now.

[Sensei]

This is horrific. Even though I wasn't touched by our fires, I was present for it, and I know how bad it gets. A lot of people are still reeling over here. Jesus, it's like that times 100. Deaths reaching 700 a day?. This is insane. I hope our Russian forum members are alright.

Read up. It's not 700/day.

Still bad, though.

Moscow times said it doubled- but, from 10 a day to 20.