Izvestia: “Everything will be restored”
New houses will be built for those who lost their homes in the wildfires; they will be equal in area to those burnt down. Special government commissions will be sent to each region to supervise the progress of relief efforts. Vladimir Putin issued such orders during his working visit to Voronezh.
The smoke over Voronezh has cleared, yet the sun continues to mercilessly scorch the earth. This is why fire teams are still on duty everywhere, even in places where it seems that there is nothing left to burn. For instance, around city Hospital №8, which nearly became the site of a tragic incident just a week ago. The fire started in the village of Maslovka, three kilometers away from the outskirts of the city. Then, the fires were fanned by strong winds, spreading to the trees and reaching the hospital in no time. Luckily, the staff was prepared: a month before the fire they had developed an evacuation plan, held some exercises and put a watch on the roof. And from there, they noticed the approaching fire.
The fire's path is now evident in the burnt forest belt.
"The fire stopped 20 metres away from the hospital. At that moment, the hospital had 465 patients and there were about a thousand people there including staff," said chief physician, Igor Ofitserov. "All of them were evacuated in an hour and a half. Nobody was injured".
"This is what the effective organisation of work looks like," the prime minister said of the hospital's staff efforts.
Yesterday Vladimir Putin praised firefighters many times. He also met with Andrey Galkin, the son of the fire brigade commander Vassily Galkin who died while trying to extinguish fires.
"I know that your father died. Please accept our most heartfelt condolences," said the prime minister and asked how the authorities could help his family and what their housing conditions were.
Andrei, who is also a firefighter and a team leader at the same fire brigade, explained that his family and his sister's family lived together in a three-room house.
"Do you want a separate apartment? Let's improve your living conditions," offered the prime minister.
Vladimir Putin has already promised to provide individual housing to all who lost their homes in the fires in the Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod Regions. For example, if a house shared by two families burned down, they should be given two newly built houses. And the new accommodations should be more modern and comfortable than the old ones.
He thought it should be just the same case for the Galkins. Nonetheless, Andrei Galkin firmly declined the offer arguing that thousands of people in Russia had been left without roofs over their heads.
"You know that given the circumstances, it would have been rude of me to accept," quietly noted Andrei Galkin.
Later at a meeting, the prime minister offered his views on how to arrange relief efforts with the aim of providing new houses to all the victims by November 1. What kind of houses? Voronezh Region Governor Alexei Gordeyev said that "the limit will be 40 square metres" because most of the burnt down buildings were smaller and the larger houses belonged to well-off people who will have no problem finding the money for the construction of a new house.
"Local oligarchs and officials shall receive two million roubles each, like everyone else. Dachas shall be rebuilt as they were before, not to be limited to 40 square meters," instructed the prime minister.
As is already well known, the prime minister plans to monitor the progress using video cameras installed at the construction sites. The images will be transmitted not only to Mr Putin's office, but even to his home. Yet, this is not enough. Yesterday the prime minister ordered that special government commissions be sent to each affected region to supervise the disbursement of funds and the pace of construction.
Call centres will be open to answer any questions from those affected by the fires: whether they are about compensation payments, the reissuance of documents or housing construction. Governors have been instructed to have the call centres open within two days.
