NUR-SULTAN (Reuters) – A huge wildfire is raging across 106,000 acres (428 square kilometres) of forest in Kazakhstan’s northern Kostanay province and hundreds of people have been evacuated from the area, the Central Asian nation’s Emergencies Ministry said on Monday.
The fire started on Saturday, the ministry said in a statement, and quickly spread because of hot weather and strong winds. Eleven people have been hurt and one person killed in the fire, it said.
In the settlement of Amankaragai, on the edge of the forest, firefighters were hosing down hotspots on Monday amid the debris of burned buildings and vehicles.
One local woman said her children had been taken to hospital suffering the effects of smoke inhalation.
“How did it all happen? First there were dark clouds, then a fire,” she told Reuters TV. “We ran away and that’s it. I can’t speak now, I’m in shock.”
A prolonged heatwave has also seen wildfires burning across parts of neighbouring Russia since last month.
(Reporting by Tamara Vaal; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Alex Richardson)
