Police open number of cases on forest fires in north of Zhytomyr region
Police officers of Zhytomyr region have opened and are investigating about a dozen criminal proceedings related to the destruction of forests or violation of the fire safety requirements established by law in relation to fires in the territory of Narodychi, Ovruch, Olevsk, Romaniv and other districts in April 2020.
According to the website of the regional police on Wednesday, April 29, investigators inspected and recorded circumstances on the scenes. Pretrial investigations of criminal proceedings are carried out under Article 240 (violation of rules related to the protection of mineral resources), Article 270 (violation of fire safety requirements established by law), Article 194 (willful destruction or endamagement of property), Article 245 (destruction or impairment of forests) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
"We will do everything in our power to identify and punish all the persons involved in these actions. However, it is obvious that the solution to the problem of fires must be comprehensive. On the part of the police, one of the measures is an effective system to control the appearance of suspicious persons in remote rural areas of the region. However, from other authorities, services and departments these are entire programs to preserve our ecology and the environment from sanitation cutting to clearing river beds and other measures, including the efficient identification of fire islands," National Police Chief in Zhytomyr region Serhiy Krupey said.
The police officers said that on April 28 another fire was recorded on the territory of the Polissia Nature Reserve. "According to available information, a fire broke out in the 51 quarter of the Perhanske forested area near the Perha village in Olevsk district and covered an area of about 250 hectares of forest," the police said in the statement.
However, work is continuing to remove the consequences of fire in the forests of Poiaskivsky forested area that arose near the villages of Rudnia-Zamyslovytska and Shebedykha in Olevsk district on April 23. The territory of fire was about 100 hectares.
