Firefighters extinguish Russian blazes

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, April 17 (UPI) -- Russian firefighters put out 10 wildfires that burned about 2,000 acres in the country's Far East over the past 24 hours, officials said.

"All l0 wildfires on a total area of 799.3 hectares (2,000 acres) have been extinguished," the media office of the Emergencies Ministry said in an RIA Novosti report Sunday. "They raged in two regions in the south of the Far East -- the Jewish Autonomous Area and the Primorye Territory."

More than 230 firefighters and nearly 100 pieces of equipment were used to fight the blazes, the ministry said.

A heat wave last year contributed to massive wildfires across Central Russia, officials said.