image: IPP Week: The Paper and Pulp Platform is reporting that 91 wildfires have been recorded in the Primorsky Krai region of Russia since the beginning of this year. This number has exceeded the five year average for the region. Local authorities in Russia have been urged to impose a state of emergency in order to quell the current forest fire situation. To date, however, the region has not approved a plan to extinguish the wildfires. The governor of the region, Vladimir Miklushevsky is to take personal control of the situation in order to find a solution to the fire issue.
This natural-color satellite image was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite on March 08, 2014. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS's thermal bands, are outlined in red.
Credit: NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption: NASA/Goddard, Lynn Jenner