Thick smog from raging wildfires engulfs Moscow

[August 04, 2010]  PEREDELTSY, Russia (AP) -- Wildfires that have wiped out Russian forests, villages and a military base sent the thickest blanket of smog yet over Moscow on Wednesday.

Passengers on Moscow's subway said an eye-stinging haze was hovering above platforms, as City Hall warned of health risks from the smoke carrying harmful gases including carbon monoxide.

To the east, firefighters focused on beating flames back from a top-secret nuclear research facility.

Russia is suffering its worst heat wave on record, helping to ignite forest and bog fires across central and western regions. Firefighters have extinguished 293 fires in total, but another 403 have been spotted while more than 500 continued to rage over large swathes of countryside, some of the out of control, the Emergencies Ministry said. The fires have killed 48 people.

Dry winds have sent clouds of smog over Moscow, but Wednesday's was the thickest yet, with the haze obscuring the capital's landmarks and penetrating the subway system.

Moscow's 10 million residents were cautioned to guard themselves against the polluting smog, which comes from fires of peat bogs to the south and east of the city. The bogs were drained in Soviet times to harvest peat, leaving them prone to wildfires -- especially in heat waves.

Pollution indicators in the capital reached a "critical barrier" overnight, and "even healthy people must take preventative measures," Moscow weather officials said in a statement. It did not say what action should be taken, but officials have urged people to wear face masks outdoors.

"I woke up before dawn and thought I was going to die of suffocation," said Yadviga Pashkova, a frail, 62-year-old former schoolteacher who lives in central Moscow. "It felt awful because there was no way out."

Some 400 kilometers (250 miles) to the east, about 2,000 army troops and emergency personnel were fighting back flames that surrounded Russia's top nuclear research facility in Sarov.

The situation there was "tense but not critical, Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Bulgakov said, after new robotic firefighting equipment was sent to the scene overnight.

"There is no threat to the Federal Nuclear Center, and there is no reason for worry," Bulgakov was quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency as saying.

The top-secret facility is Russia's main nuclear research center, and the birthplace of Soviet nuclear weapons. Lawyers for the late Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London in 2006 after drinking tea laced with polonium, claimed the radioactive isotope was produced at Sarov.

Meanwhile, in the tiny village of Peredeltsy about 125 miles (200 kilometers) southeast of Moscow, locals worried about their futures after fire reduced their homes to smoldering ash over the weekend.

"I pray we won't be left in the street," said Yelena Savina, 27, who lost the home she shared with seven other family members. She said the fire approached the village so quickly on Sunday the family barely had time to escape.

"Everything burned in 15 minutes," she said of the village of about 20 houses, now surrounded by charred woodland. She said she was counting on Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to follow though on promises of 200,000 rubles ($6,600) compensation plus new homes.

Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu conceded Tuesday that some wildfires were out of control, contradicting earlier reassurances that the situation was in check. Prosecutors said Wednesday they were investigating possible criminal negligence in several regions in connection with the fires, but did not elaborate.

President Dmitry Medvedev planned a security council meeting Wednesday to discuss protecting strategic defense facilities, a day after officials confirmed the fires burned at least half of the buildings at a military base near Moscow containing unspecified aviation equipment. Russian media said up to 200 naval aircraft may have been destroyed.

The weather this week will not likely help the firefighting efforts, as temperatures in Moscow and to the south and east were forecast to reach 38 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit).

[Associated Press; By KHRISTINA NARIZHNAYA]

Associated Press writers David Nowak, Vladimir Isachenkov and Mansur Mirovalev contributed to this report.

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