Wildfires spreading across parts of Russia kill at least 23

Being the hottest summer weather to be recorded in Russia these last 130 years, the fire has been fanned by strong winds burning down hundreds of wooden house.  One of the residents residing in the town of Masklovka said that that, “we don’t know where to go. We called the emergency services and not one person answered the phone.”

Health Minister Tatyana Golikovo said that 439 people have been injured in the town of Voronezh alone. She said that  other 43 have been hospitalised in serious conditions.

Russia has been suffering from the heatwave since June, where it had destroyed crops and pushed thousands of farmers to the verge of bankruptcy, Reutuers say.

The emergencies ministry said 238,000 people have been deployed to fighting peat and forest fires across 866 square km, an area about the size of Berlin. State television showed a crowd of women surrounding Putin, the latter promising that the village will be fully rebuilt, Reuters report.

Emergencies Ministry officials refused to give a complete death toll but said five people, including one firefighter, were killed overnight in the Voronezh region and nine in Nizhny Novgorod. In the latter region, at least 540 homes were destroyed.

In the Voronezh region, 900 patients were evacuated from a hospital which was threatened by the flames.