UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 7, 2015. Not a single forest fire broke out in Yekaterinburg in the summer of 2015, the city council reports.

A special fire alert mode was introduced for the summer, which meant locals were not allowed into the potentially dangerous parts of forests and peat bogs. The city council representatives joined rescue rangers to patrol the nearby forests and detect offenders.

‘Ad hoc committees and teams were set up in every city district to prevent and fight forest fires. The potentially dangerous spots are controlled by these; the spots get inspected on a regular basis. Reports are made on the basis of the inspection results; these are then presented directly to the city council officials,’ the city council says.

All this has helped to avoid forest fires in Yekaterinburg altogether.

At the same time, forest fires broke out in Sverdlovsk Region as early as in April. Large-scale damage could be avoided thanks to the colder-than-usual summer and plenty of rainstorms.