The true scale of fires on Balkhash

Recently, colleagues from Tengrinews asked what was happening in the Balkhash Reserve — smoldering or a fire?

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

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

You'll agree — the situation is a bit 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 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.