Eerie scenes of dark-red skies, and of the sun completely blocked by smog from wildfires are coming today from the Republic of Sakha.
Russia’s largest territory, used to be known as the Kingdom of Permafrost is turning into the Capital of Wildfires with this summer catastrophic forest infernos that have already burned down more than two million hectares of territory.
It’s 3pm and dark outside as shown in this first video:
Residents of Yakutsk, the world’s largest city built on permafrost, have spent weeks suffocating in poisonous smog brought by the fires.
People living in settlements east, west and north of the capital complain of struggling to breathe.
New videos filmed earlier today in Kobyaysky, Vilyuysky and Nyurbinsky districts (west and north-west of Yakutsk) looked more like scenes from horror movies, with daylight turning black and red, and ash raining from the sky.
Several fire-extinguishing planes due for a busy working day could not take off from the Mirny airdrome in the west of Yakutia due to low visibility.
Mirny, one of Russia’s key diamond-mining towns, has been blanketed by thick smog since early this morning.
‘We don’t remember the situation ever being so bad’, said residents of the village of Kobyai who also reported blackouts and ash rains.
Even brown bears are begging for food along the roads.
