Russia's early spring this year, combined with low rainfall, meant that conditions were right for fires to start in abandoned peat mines. On March 29, a peat fire started at a drained peat bog in the region's Sergiyevo-Posadsky District. It is thought to have started when someone deliberately set alight dead grass from the previous year.
Peat fires can easily spread to forest fires.

This is a not uncommon practice in provincial Russia as it is traditionally believed to improve the fertility of the soil.

According to forecasts from Russia’s Ministry for Emergencies, this year’s summer is likely to be dry. And if by the start of summer, any peat fires are still burning, it will be impossible to prevent fires spreading to forested and residential areas.

At worst, more than 7000 towns and villages may be at risk. If this occurs, it is likely that Moscow will be badly affected by smoke, as it was four years ago.

Peat stores in Russia

The total area of peat bogs in Russia is 568,000 square kilometres. The bogs are mostly in the north of the European part of Russia, in West Siberia and Kamchatka.

Peat is a fossil fuel formed from decaying marsh plants in humid and airless conditions. Its main function is to store carbon. Peat also acts as a natural water filter, as it absorbs impurities and heavy metals.

Peat mining reached its height in Russia during Soviet times – in 1975, the USSR produced 90 million tonnes of peat, more than all the other countries of the world combined.

Finland and Canada, then the world's second and thirdlargest peat producers, mined just 1 million tonnes a year.

Peat was used as a fuel for power generation and as a raw material in the chemical industry. As far back as 1913, Russia even built the world's first power plant that ran on peat.

Throughout the time that peat was mined, it was also widely used in agriculture, as a fertiliser and as bedding for cattle and poultry.

However, as the gas industry developed, peat's profitability as an energy source declined.

An industry abandoned

The resulting drop in demand for peat meant that a large number of peat mines were simply abandoned. According to the International Peat Society (IPS, 1995), the world's reserves of peat are more than 400 billion tonnes. Canada takes first place in peat reserves, with more than 170 million hectares of peat swamps.