Fires in Russia and China

Smoke clouds the skies across northeastern China and southeastern Russia. The dry, windy weather of autumn created hazardous fire conditions in northeast China.

Since wildfires have occurred frequently recently, the national forest fire prevention authorities issued an orange alert Sunday for forest fire outbreaks for the northeastern areas of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and the northwestern and southeastern parts of Heilongjiang. Orange is the second highest alert level in China’s forest fire prevention system.

Russian officials, meanwhile, reported monitoring four large wildfires in the Far Eastern Federal District, which includes the area shown here. (EarthObservatory)

 Fire situation as of 06:00 10.10.2011. (EMERCOM)

Hundreds evacuated for grassland fire in NE China (XinhuaNews)