Just when Muscovites thought the smog caused by wildfires had dissipated, they are once again rethinking their routines, writes Rose Griffin
MUSCOVITES ATTEMPTING to get to work yesterday morning braved more thick smog as smoke clouds from wildfires, which had dissipated on Thursday, returned to the capital.
While some employers told workers to stay at home, many still struggled with extreme conditions in central Moscow, where smoke had even penetrated the metro system early in the day.
Diarmaid Terry, a young Tipperary man working for Aer Rianta in Moscow, took the day off work to avoid the smoke. “I can’t bear it. It’s very difficult to breathe,” he explained. “The smoke is everywhere now, even indoors and in metro stations, my air-conditioned gym is also full of smoke. I tried to buy an air conditioner last weekend but was told that it’s impossible to get anyone to install it until at least August 15th.”
He added that the streets and metro were very quiet. “It feels like a weekend. From what I can see most people are staying at home, if at all possible.”
Advised at work to leave the city, Terry plans to spend the weekend in the capital, but go abroad for a few days next week.
Public transport in the south of the city was less busy on the commuter run than usual yesterday morning and many commuters wore masks to try and minimize the health risk of the smog, which carried the distinctive smell of turf smoke into the city. Yury Tunyagin, a land surveyor in his twenties is one Muscovite who made it into work, and he was relatively upbeat about conditions.
“I didn’t really have any problems; of course there was smoke everywhere, on the street and in the metro, but it was bearable.
“Also I had a mask which at least saved me from the smell.” Tunyagin’s company has been relatively slow to respond to worsening conditions. “My company has done a few things to help us, but not that much,” he explains. “We have air conditioning and all the windows are closed, but today is the first day we are working a shorter day, which means we can go home two hours early.” For now, Tunyagin plans to stick it out in the capital. “The only way to get away from the smoke and the heat is to go north.
“Unfortunately I didn’t sort out a ticket early enough and now the only ones left are very expensive,” he said.
Only one of Moscow’s three airports, Sheremtyevo to the north of the city, was operating as normal yesterday.
Tickets on trains leaving the capital for the north and west had also become difficult to come by yesterday, as more and more people struggled to escape the smoke for cleaner regions.
The smoke is coming from wildfires that have hit many regions to the south and east of Moscow. They continued to rage yesterday, sweeping quickly through extremely dry forests and peat bogs after a summer which has seen numerous temperature records broken, and very little rain.