Thursday, August 17 2017 17:23

ArmInfo. Equipping with fire-fighting equipment is not enough in Armenia - there is a  shortage of finances. On August 17, after the meeting of the Government, Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations of Armenia David Karapetyan stated in a conversation with journalists.  According to him, stormy public discussions were quite expected, which indicates a careful attitude to environmental issues and awareness of public interest.

At the same time, the deputy minister notes that, given that for a  long time there were no fires of this magnitude, the society did not  very well represent difficulties in extinguishing them, and  expectations arose that such fires can also be extinguished very  quickly. "In the fight against such fires, even the most powerful  countries have difficulties," David Karapetyan said.

As for the technical equipment of the fire service, then, as the  representative of the Ministry for Emergency Situations noted, there  is technology, but this is not enough. "The equipment was purchased  within the Ministry's capabilities, why we do not have an airplane to  extinguish fires, it's a matter of finance, but to deny that the  Ministry for Emergencies has recorded progress in its work in recent  years is also subjective," he said. At the same time, according to  the deputy minister, the department tried to compensate for the  technical problems that had taken place by organized work.

Responding to the remark that Armenia applied for help to Russia only  on the third day of the fire in the state reserve "Khosrov Forest",  the deputy minister noted that at first glance the scale of the fire  was not so large and Yerevan hoped to cope with the fire on its own.  And only when the resolution of the situation by its own resources  became impossible, the Armenian Ministry of Emergency Situations sent  a request for assistance to the Ministry of Emergency Situations of  the Russian Federation.  Recall that the rescue service of the  Ministry of Emergency Situations of RA received a signal on 12 August  at 12:30 that a meadow is burning in the state preserve "Khosrov  Forest" in the 20 km from the village of Urtsadzor (Ararat region),  and only on August 14 the Ministry of Emergency Situations of  Armenia, Who was unable to fight the fire on his own, was forced to  seek help from his Russian counterparts.On the same day at 19.20 the  Il-76 special bunker of the Ministry of Emergencies of Russia arrived  in Armenia to participate in an operation to extinguish fires that  took unprecedented scale in the mountains of Armenia According to pr  According to the head of the association "For the sake of stable  human development" Karine Danielyan, a large part of the reserve has  burnt out - about 3000 hectares out of 30 Thousand