OREANDA-NEWS The Ministry of Natural Resources of the Komi Republic and the regional forest fire center intend to purchase 27 drones in the next two years for use in extinguishing forest fires. This year, two drones were used to assess the situation on the spot and make operational decisions, Ekaterina Kiselyevich, Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the republic, told reporters.

"We plan to purchase about 27 drones in the next two years. We plan that in October we will conclude an agreement [with Syktyvkar Automotive Engineering College, where a Drone Operator Training Center has been opened] so that either our specialists will be trained there, or a target contract for training specialists to work with this equipment," the minister said.

As explained by the director of the Komi Forest Fire Center Vitaly Ryabov, drones were effective not for patrolling, but for assessing the situation in a particular area for more prompt decision-making. Previously, aviation was used for this. In general, the efficiency of extinguishing forest fires was 67%, 91 out of 145 fires were eliminated on the first day of detection. "There was no threat to settlements and economic facilities," the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources noted.

According to the minister, the current, already completed fire-hazardous period has passed safely for the region. 145 forest fires were recorded on an area of 1,351 hectares, of which 56% occurred from dry thunderstorms, the rest - due to the fault of the local population. The damage was estimated at 94.38 million rubles, specially protected areas were not affected. Last year, there were 445 fires with an area of more than 61 thousand hectares, the forest burned in the Yugyd Va National Park, and the damage from fires amounted to about 800 million rubles.