By Roman Kutukov
YAKUTSK, Russia (Reuters) – Wildfires tore through the Siberian village of Byas-Kyuyol so fast at the weekend that people fled leaving their pets behind. Rescuers have since saved six cats who survived the blaze.
The fires, which have swept the northeastern Siberian region of Yakutia this summer, made 185 people homeless when they destroyed more than 40 houses in Byas-Kyuyol on Saturday, according to the local News Ykt media outlet. No one was reported hurt.
Volunteers combed the ruins of the village looking for cats after spotting them in a media video of the devastation. They ended up finding six, four of them badly hurt in the blaze and now being treated in a clinic in Yakutsk, the regional capital.
One of the cats was in a swamp trying to cool its injured paws, said Ekaterina Fedorova, an animal rights activist, who was among the volunteers. “Evidently his paws were hurting so he sat right in the water,” she said.
“Cats hide when they get stressed. We found two of them in an abandoned house … it’s a good thing they didn’t burn,” said Fedorova.
One volunteer said she had found the remains of a dog that had been tied up and had died in the blaze.
Fedorova said the owners of two of the cats had asked for them to be returned once they had resolved the problem of their destroyed homes. Local officials are promising to rebuild them by mid-October.
Russia’s largest region of Yakutia is hit by wildfires every year, but they have been particularly intense in recent years. This year’s fires have blanketed towns in thick smoke that has drifted as far as the North Pole.
The head of the region has linked the ferocity of the fires with climate change and the EU’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service says the Yakutia fires have emitted record amounts of estimated carbon emissions this year with weeks more of the fire season to come.
The fires, fuelled by hot weather, have raised fears about the permafrost and peatlands thawing, which would release carbon long stored in the frozen tundra and drive temperatures higher.
(Reporting by Roman Kutukov; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
