Cloud seeding used as a final resort to put out Khuvsgul wild fire
A wildfire has been raging in Erdenebulgan soum, Khuvsgul Province since April 15. The local emergency department has decided to try cloud seeding, a form of weather modification used to stimulate rainfall, to put out the fire once and for all...
Awildfire has been raging in Erdenebulgan soum, Khuvsgul Province since April 15. The local emergency department has decided to try cloud seeding, a form of weather modification used to stimulate rainfall, to put out the fire.
Emergency workers at the site reported that their attempts to extinguish the wildfire from two sides had been futile due to strong winds and dry air.
The Water, Meteorology and Environment Monitoring Agency in Khuvsgul Province performed the weather modification on Thursday night, as instructed by the Head of the province’s Emergency Commission L.Ganbold. Experts shot rockets with chemicals into clouds heading toward the rampant fire from the areas of Khoridol and Saridag Davaa.
Representatives from the Khuvsgul Province Emergency Commission and National Emergency Management Agency held an online emergency meeting on Wednesday to consider the gravity of the situation. After this review, Head of the local emergency commission Yo.Purevsuren and Deputy Mayor T.Battogtokh were instructed to visit the site personally, give the necessary management related instructions, increase the number of firefighters, reassign tasks, and control the spread of the fire so that it could be put out faster.
As of 11:00 a.m. on April 18, 168 firefighters and volunteers were reported to be working at the site of the wildfire with 10 fire trucks, eight motorbikes and 61 horses.
The emergency departments in Bulgan and Orkhon provinces sent out 27 firefighters to aid firefighting efforts.
Since January, 18 forest and steppe fires have occurred in 15 soums in Arkhangai, Dornod, Sukhbaatar, Selenge, Khovd, Khuvsgul and Khentii provinces. Preliminary results estimate that 32,008 hectares of land – 24 hectares of forest and 31,984 hectares of steppe – were burnt in these fires. The dry weather is considered to be the biggest cause of wildfire occurrences in the first quarter of 2018.