Firefighters put out 6 wildfires in Russia's Far East

Firefighters have extinguished six out of 27 wildfires in Russia's Far East over the past 24 hours, the Emergencies Ministry reported on Friday. Russia is trying to prevent a repeat of last summer's disaster, when an unprecedented heat wave caused massive wildfires, which killed 62 people and left thousands homeless. "A total of 21 fires were registered at 1 a.m. Moscow time [2100 GMT Thursday] on an area of 24.56 hectares; nine of them have been localized," a ministry spokesman said. A special anti-fire regime was earlier introduced in many regions of the Far East due to dry and hot weather.