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State Forest Service: rain helps and currently the fire risk in forests is not very high – in Latvia

In the last month, there have been no critical fire safety situations in Latvia’s forests, said Zigmunds Jaunķiķis, Deputy Head of the Forest and Environmental Protection Division of the State Forest Service (SFS).

He admitted that during the past month there have been longer periods of drought in Latvia, but the situation is normalized by local rains. “Local rainfall helps and currently the fire risk is not too high,” said the expert.

Commenting on the future situation, he noted that in the next week to one and a half weather forecasters promise precipitation, so the fire risk in the forests is likely to remain at the current level. “Despite the increase in air temperature, the promised precipitation reduces the fire risk,” he concluded.

The young man also said that most forest fires this year, as in other years, have been detected in the SFS Riga Regional Forestry. This means that the largest number of forest fires was in Riga, Pieriga and Jūrmala, taking into account the large population in the capital. The second highest forest fires in Latvia are still occupied by the SFS South Latgale Forestry, as the population is also relatively high in Daugavpils, and some of them do not always observe fire safety in nearby forests.

The Deputy Head of the Forest and Environmental Protection Division of the SFS added that despite the rains, the SFS still calls for caution in the forest with fire, as the forest fire-fighting period continues.

“We can’t say ‘hop’ until August is over. It’s not known what the weather will be like in the future. Experience shows that September can also be quite dry,” he said, calling for caution. The main causes of fires in forests in Latvia are careless handling of fire by people.

In the period from January 1 to July 20, the SFS detected and extinguished 434 forest fires with a total forest land area of ​​220.38 hectares, according to the SFS statistics.

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