In the “Holy Mountains” in Donetsk region, the fire has been extinguished for the fifth day. The national park says that such damage has never happened before

In Donetsk region, more than 130 rescuers from different regions are trying to control the fire in the “Holy Mountains” national park, which started after Russian shelling. The fire burned through about 5,000 hectares of forest.

This was reported by the Main Department of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the Donetsk region.

As of 18:00 on September 5, no open burning was observed, but smoke and individual smoldering centers were detected. The State Emergency Service is conducting aerial reconnaissance to prevent re-ignition.

In total, 133 rescuers from Donetsk region, as well as from Luhansk, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, and Cherkasy regions work at the site. 33 units of equipment were involved.

The director of the park, Serhii Pryimachuk, said that “Holy Mountains” had not yet suffered such large-scale damage. According to him, as a result of the fire, the land and air were polluted, the nests of insects and birds were destroyed.

“The forest will begin to get sick and in a year it will not be suitable for anything. Even for firewood. Pine trees will fall. Mycoses, some fungal ones, will develop,” Pryymachuk noted.

He emphasized that it will take more than a decade to restore the forest.

“This forest is not one generation behind him. When you plant it, you have to weed it, you have to take care of it. We have a risky zone and sandy soil. Here, everything depends on the weather conditions, depends on how the soil will depend,” explained the director of the national park.

Earlier, the Ministry of Environmental Protection reported that due to the full-scale invasion of Russia, 80% of the forests of the National Park “Holy Mountains” were destroyed. The damage to the environment of the national park was preliminarily estimated at about 16 billion hryvnias.

The fire in the north of Donetsk began on September 1. The head of the Donetsk regional military administration, Vadym Filashkin, reported that it was caused by Russian shelling. The State Emergency Service stated that it was an airstrike.

Dry, hot weather and strong winds helped spread the flames. The fire also caused the detonation of explosive devices left by the occupiers.

On September 4, it was reported that the fire spread over an area of ​​more than 5,000 hectares within the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions.

According to preliminary information, 43 houses, 3 farm buildings and 8 cars were damaged by fire in the village of Yarova.