#4
Chicago Tribune
August 1, 2002
Muscovites fret as peat-bog fires make air worse
By Alex Rodriguez
Tribune foreign correspondent

MOSCOW -- Long ago Muscovites grew accustomed to the sooty haze that often conceals the morning sun, but on Wednesday that haze mingled with a blanket of smoke rolling in from more than a hundred peat-bog fires burning on the city's outskirts.

Visibility was down to 50 yards in places. The odor of charred wood was everywhere, even indoors. And though the city went about its business, the situation was enough to worry even the hardiest Muscovites.

"I was looking out my third-floor window and I couldn't see any buildings outside," Tatiana Kriger said as she strolled through a city park with her 2-year-old grandson. "My throat itches, my grandchild is coughing. I'm afraid he's going to become asthmatic."

As many as 119 peat-bog fires burned Wednesday in the woodlands surrounding the Russian capital. Firefighters have been battling peat fires outside Moscow for days, but the region's recent heat wave and dearth of rain hastened the spread of fires this week.

Moscow health officials urged residents, especially children, the elderly and people with respiratory troubles, to stay inside. Russia's Weather Center reported that the smoky smog was expected to hover over the Moscow region for at least two more days.

The level of carbon monoxide in the air was 20 percent higher than what Russian environmental officials deem safe, the Russian news service Interfax reported.

Hospital emergency rooms reported no significant change in the number of admissions Wednesday. Still, Moscow health experts said the city should brace for an increase in respiratory complaints and viral disorders in coming months.

Despite the smog and visibility problems, Moscow's transportation system carried on virtually unaffected. At Moscow's four major airports, officials reported no increase in flight delays or cancellations.

The bog fires and the haze they are producing are the city's worst since 1972, when peat blazes cloaked the capital in smoke. In 1992, peat and forest fires in Kaliningrad, Russia's Baltic Sea enclave, scorched thousands of acres and killed 31 people.

Hundreds of Russian firefighters are working to extinguish 740 acres of peat-bog and woodland blazes in the Moscow region, bulldozing trenches around bogs and filling ditches with water. Two helicopters equipped with water tanks are being used to douse the burning peat.

Wildfires have raged throughout Russia for much of the summer. In Russia's Far East, 212,400 acres of forest are ablaze, while in central Russia forest fires have swept over 4,940 acres. The Moscow region, however, is the only place where peat fires are burning.

Meteorologists say Moscow may get relief by this weekend, when cooler air and strong winds are expected to dissipate the smoke.

In the meantime, Muscovites such as Kriger are worried about how the smoke will affect them, even as they amble down parkways and city sidewalks. Despite warnings from city health officials, city parks were filled Wednesday with rollicking children, mothers pushing strollers and seniors chatting on benches.

At least one Muscovite, Sofia Nikolskaya, 89, thought the smoky haze was just another gray Moscow morning.

"I didn't notice anything special," Nikolskaya said as she rested on a park bench near the Moscow River. "I had my window open this morning, but I didn't feel anything different."

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