Effects of wildfire at Mokhnatka Mount can be cleared by 2014

Works to eliminate consequences of the wildfire at Mokhnatka Mount in Ile-Alatau National Park should be finished by 2014, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Serik Akhmetov then First Deputy Prime-Minister of Kazakhstan as saying. “It should not be postponed to 2014. You (Kazakhstan Ministry of Agriculture) should have all the works to protect Medeu sports center done in 2012-2013,” he said on September 11, during the meeting that was part of the Deputy’s working trip to Almaty. During that meeting he also instructed the Ministry to come up with proposals on sources of the recovery efforts funding. Akhmetzhan Yessimov, Akim (Mayor) of Almaty, said that the fire left the slopes bare escalating the threat of avalanches in winter and spring. The avalanches are a threat to the local residents and tourists as well as to the surrounding infrastructure: roads, aerial cableways and sport facilities. The massive fire on Mokhnatka Mount in the Ile-Alatau National Park in the vicinities of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s biggest city, started at about 10:30 p.m. on August 22. 295 people, 261 of them children, were evacuated from Mountain Sun camp located nearby. Almaty Oblast Forestry and Hunting Inspection along with fire-fighting authorities launched an investigation to identify the cause of the fire and evaluate the damage caused to the national park. The area on fire made 77.6 hectares, 47.6 hectares of them covered in woods. The total damage of the wildfire amounted to 388.3 million tenge ($2.62 million). 710 people, 62 vehicles and 4 helicopters were involved in the quenching operation. According to the Ministry’s of Agriculture preliminary conclusions, careless handling of fire caused the disaster.