The true scale of fires on Balkhash

Recently, colleagues from Tengrinews questioned what exactly happened in the Balkhash reserve — smoldering or a fire?

The journalists noticed that a space company's website published a news item stating that about 3,000 hectares of reeds were burning in a marshy area of the Ile-Balkhash reserve.

Later, the information was removed, and media reports indicated that no open flames were observed in the reserve, and it was merely smoldering reeds over a small area of 30 hectares. The information was accompanied by an image showing a small red dot (see photo).

You'll agree — the situation is somewhat contradictory and, understandably, requires verification.

Let's help our colleagues from Tengri with fact-checking and find out the truth.

So, according to actual space monitoring data, the fire on the Balkhash shore started on June 11. The image clearly shows flames; smoldering would not produce such a fire (see photo).

The fire then noticeably advanced northward, and by June 16, two areas were already burning. The fire in the images (not smoldering) is clearly visible even to a non-specialist with the naked eye (see photo).

In the end, about 7,000 hectares of the shoreline burned. That's a bit more than 30 hectares, it seems to me. Although, the authorities know better.

The free tool "Fire Detection Map" was used in preparing this material.