On June 6, 2012, on the territory of the forestry of the Republic of Tuva (Tyva), the strongest forest fire broke out, which cost the lives of several firefighters who tried to curb it. Eight paratroopers were killed during the mission, one received severe burns.
The beginning of the summer of 2012 was marked by a tragedy for the Republic of Tuva: in the Barun-Khemchinsky forestry, located in the area of Lake Kara-Khol, there was a fire that captured an area of 500 hectares. Until now, experts have not come to a definite opinion on what could have caused it. One of the most probable versions is dry thunderstorms (with minimal precipitation), which could lead to fires of grass and trees, as well as abnormally hot weather and squally winds, which contributed to the rapid spread of fire over inaccessible areas without water sources.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia put forward its version of what happened: the human factor, namely, careless handling of fire. In June, thanks to the good weather, in the forest-steppe zone of the Republic of Tuva, there were a considerable number of both tourists and gamekeepers, each of whom could not pay attention to the smoldering coals of an extinguished fire or throw a smoking cigarette butt on the ground. With low air humidity, in a short period of time, a piece of grass or a branch of a tree that had become smoldering could turn into hectares of blazing forest.
Initially, the fire spread along the ground, which made it possible to quickly extinguish the fires. However, due to the gusty wind (its speed reached 30 meters per second), the ground fire developed into a horse fire, which caused the mass death of the fire brigade officers who landed on the scene.
To extinguish the fire, fourteen paratroopers were sent from the regional airbase to protect forests from fires. Arriving at the place, they split up: a group of eight people was deprived of oxygen due to the squall wind, which literally raised tongues of flame. The firefighters died as a result of suffocation. Among the dead paratroopers, the youngest was a little over twenty years old. Another parachutist who found himself in the epicenter, Sergei Paderin, managed to make his way through the flames to the river and wait there until the fire died down. Only late in the evening Sergey was able to get out of the burnt taiga, going out to the hut of the gamekeepers. After hospitalization, it turned out that the surviving Tuvan had more than twenty-five percent of his body parts burned and he would need long-term rehabilitation. The most fortunate were those five rescuers who escaped the fire down the slope and avoided burns.
As soon as the incident became known in the republic, the authorities sent an additional one hundred paratroopers to extinguish the taiga. In the shortest possible time, all sources of ignition were destroyed. In parallel with the rescue work in Tuva, investigative measures began, the purpose of which was to find out the reason: why the dead firefighters were sent by the command straight into the thick of it. The criminal case under the article "Causing death by negligence due to improper performance by a person of his professional duties" at the beginning of July 2012 continues to form. However, the most probable causes of multiple deaths are already now called meteorological conditions.
In July 2012, the second series of forest fires began in Tuva, caused by high air temperatures and lack of precipitation. An emergency has been declared in the republic.
