Russian army battles wildfires that have killed 28

MASLOVKA, Russia - Russia sent the army yesterday to battle wildfires that have killed at least 28 people and were threatening dozens of towns and villages. Thick smoke and ash slowed firefighting efforts and thousands of people were being evacuated.

Half of the 300 homes in the village of Maslovka, half a day's drive south of Moscow, were reduced to cinders. Stunned locals sifted through the ash for possessions to salvage and people pooled what little food they had - mainly potatoes and carrots - to ensure no one starved.

"This is a catastrophe," Maslovka resident Yevgeniya Yuzhina said as she waited in a hotel lobby in the nearby city of Voronezh filling out a form to receive cash compensation.

All 300 of the army's fire trucks have been dispatched,

Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said. Many regions of the country are suffering through their hottest summer since record-keeping began 130 years ago.

Officials said Friday over 214,136 acres of parched woodland and peat bog were burning in at least 14 of the country's 83 regions, mainly in western Russia.

State television reported yesterday that the death had risen from the last reported figure of 25, without providing details.

"Fire and wind have no days off, so we can't take any days off," Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in a videoconference with emergency officials, where he announced $100,000 would be allocated for each of the 1,200 homes destroyed so far. He pledged that all would eventually be rebuilt.

"We're placing all our hopes on Putin," Ivan Kosinov, an unemployed 46-year-old, said as he waited in line.

The Nizhny Novgorod region's governor, Valery Shantsev, said in televised remarks yesterday that the situation there remained grave because thick smoke was preventing firefighting planes from dumping water on the blazes.