Apocalyptic Forest Fire And Thick Smoke Stop Traffic On Road Of Bones Highway
These are the apocalyptic images of the aptly named Road of Bones converted into an inferno with only the blackened trunks of destroyed trees left smoking in the flames.
Due to the strong forest fire in the Tattinsky and Tomponsky Districts of Yakutia, the section of the Kolyma highway also known as the Road of Bones was blocked from kilometres 326 to 365 (39 kilometres) in Russia on 30th June.
The Kolyma highway is the only road connecting the eastern part of Sakha (also known as Yakutia) with the western and central parts of the Magadan region, and provides access to the Pacific coast, had to be shut because the fire got too close to the road and was much too fierce for safe driving.
According to the news website Tass, the Federal State Institution for Management of the Krasnoyarsk – Irkutsk Highway of the Federal Road Agency announced the reopening of the street for traffic on Kolyma Highway on 1st July.
The Institution wrote: “Due to a decrease in the level of smoke and an improvement in visibility on the section kilometre 293 – kilometre 365 of the federal highway R-504 ‘Kolyma’, traffic is open to all types of transport from 1st July .”
The difficult situation of forest fire persists in the districts of Verkhnevilyuysky, Vilyuysky, Gorny, Zhigansky, Kobyaysky, Mirninsky, Nyurbinsky, Neryungri, Olyokminsky, Oymyakonsky, Ust-Maysky, Tomponsky and Suntarsky. The burning area is over 259 thousand hectares (640,000 acres).
For the protection of Udarnik, Uolba, Eldikan and Teligi localities an airmobile group of the main directorate as been set up to monitor the situation.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations continues to fight the active flames, and authorities are also trying to cause artificial rain to somehow stop the fires.
According to operational data, Avialesokhrana, which provides aerial protection of forests against fires, there are 314 wildfires in the region, of which 46 fires were extinguished in one day.
Some 2,244 people, 150 pieces of equipment, as well as aviation crews, are involved in the firefighting operation.
