At a government meeting on Thursday, Armenia’s Minister of Emergency Situations Feliks Tsolakyan said that the number of fires has increased dramatically in the country in recent days, which is not typical of this time of year.

Informing that employees of the ministry are facing some difficulties while moving from one place to another and putting out fires, the minister asked the local governments to seriously deal with the problem.

“Villagers gather and burn leaves, residues of their orchards. But then they fail to monitor the process and the fire spreads,” he said.

“There are fires for other reasons, too. We have forest fires that are not typical of this season. For example, we recorded 95 fires yesterday,” Feliks Tsolakyan said.

Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan proposed Vache Terteryan, Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, to discuss the issue with Feliks Tsolakyan and implement measures, involving regional administrations in them.