Russian president awards Armenian head of rescue service with Friendship Order

The head of Armenian rescue service of the Emergencies Ministry Sergey Azaryan has been awarded with the Friendship Order by the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for courage and high professionalism in extinguishing the fires in Russia, News Armenia reports, citing the press-service of the Russian embassy in Armenia.

Russia had fires in 22 subjects in July. Emergency situation was declared in seven regions. There were approximately 30 000 forest fires covering over 1.6 million hectares. Over 50 people died. Over 3500 were left homeless. The second wave of fires started in Volgograd, Samara, Penza and Saratov Regions in September.