Forest fires kill 18 in Russia

Moscow, Friday
Eighteen people died in forest fires in Russia’s worst heat wave in decades, officials said Friday, as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited one of the worst hit areas to reassure local residents.

Angry residents of a village in the central Nizhny Novgorod region where all 341 houses burnt down confronted Putin as he visited the area, many wiping tears from their eyes, television reports showed.

“We aren’t asking for anything out of this world. We are just asking for a guarantee that we will be able to live here by winter,” a woman resident said in footage shown on state Channel One television.

Village will be restored

“By winter, all the houses will be standing. I promise you that your village will be restored,” said Putin, adding that the standard compensation of $1,652 per household for loss of possessions would be increased to $6,614 per resident.

He then lent forward and embraced the woman.
Putin flew into the village of Verkhnyaya Vereya on Friday morning after more than 500 residents were left homeless by a fire. (AFP)