KYIV. Oct 1 (Interfax) - Wildfires have killed five people and forced another 120 to evacuate in the Luhansk region, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry press service said on Thursday morning.
"Firemen, rescuers, police officers, and servicemen have been putting out fires and evacuating people for over a day now. The fires have killed five people. According to current reports, 120 people have been evacuated," the ministry said on Facebook.
The fires are being fought by 1,229 men and 204 pieces of hardware. "Aircraft have been engaged in the firefighting effort with the consent of the Joint Forces Operation headquarters and the JCCC," the ministry said.
Ukraine's State Emergency Service said, for its part, that six major fires broke out on the contact line in the past 24 hours. "According to tentative estimates, the fire zone nears 9,300 hectares," the agency said in a statement on its website on Thursday morning.
According to the statement, the situation is the most difficult in the area between Stanytsia Luhanska and Sievierodonetsk, where the fires are endangering 22 populated localities (Bolotina, Stanytsia Luhanska, Vilkhova, Malynove, Pishchane, Nizhneteple, Artem, Geivka, Lobacheve, Tryokhizbenka, Kryakivka, Kashtanove, Muratovo, Oskolonivka, Bobrove, Borivske, Voronove, Syrotyne, Metyolkine, Sievierodonetsk, Baidivka, and Polovynkyne).
The regional prosecution service opened a criminal inquiry on counts of a breach of fire safety regulations.