The city of Yakutsk lies in eastern Siberia. It has a population of 300,000 and road distance between the city and Moscow is close to 8,000 kilometres.
This summer 8.8 million hectares of surrounding forest was engulfed in fire.
At the same time the permafrost under the area is melting.
Alexander Fyodorov, deputy director of the Melnikov Permafrodst Institute in Yakutsk says: "The biggest threat is that degradation of the permafrost will change and destroy infrastructure: towns, villages, roads, airports, everything in turn. And many accidents have already taken place with gas and oil pipelines, due to changes in the permafrost.
Two years ago an apartment block in Yakutsk was found to be listing by 42 centimetres. Walls were cracked, floors were sloping. Emergency work was carried out on the piles that support most buildings in permafrost areas.
President Putin has asked authorities in the region "to speed up the creation of a national system for monitoring the condition of the permafrost."
Information taken from The Irish Times.
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