Russia in panic as raging infernos break out and residents ordered to evacuate homes | World | News

A massive fire has ripped through a construction market in a town just outside Moscow. The blaze broke out in a one-storey building on Promyshlennaya Street in the town of Solnechnogorsk.

The town is located on main highway connecting the Moscow and Saint Petersburg and is 65 kilometres northwest of the capital. The raging inferno quickly spread to the Armenia Market next door and currently covers an area of 2,100 square metres. Video images shot by people in the vicinity show the fire burning out of control with thick black smoke billowing skywards.

Ten people managed to escape from the burning building. So far there has no confirmation of any casualties.

Emergency Services raced to the scene of the fire and are currently struggling to contain the blaze.

They are being hampered by intense heat and the thick acrid smoke that is pouring from the building.

Currently, more than 60 firefighters and 18 units of equipment are working on site.

Another major fire broke out on Wednesday in Kaluga, 150 kilometres southwest of Moscow.

The fire started in a store called Svetoria on Glagoleva Street, which sells wallpaper.

Emergency responders are in the process of trying to bring the fire under control.

Meanwhile, officials in Buryatia have ordered people living in a village to evacuate in their homes, as a forest fire threatens to engulf the settlement.

Ninety-one residents – including 33 children – have been bused out from the Siberian village to temporary shelters in a neighbouring locality.

The fire was being pushed towards the village by strong winds, which have hampered attempts to bring it under control.

As of Wednesday morning, 43 wildfires were active across Buryatia, with the regional branch of Russia’s Federal Forestry Agency attributing 30 of them to human negligence.

“We’re now on the fifth day of detecting fires in remote areas that are difficult to reach and even harder to extinguish,” said Sergei Boroshnoyev, head of the agency’s Buryatia branch.