The nuclear material was evacuated from the Sarov nuclear site in Nizhny Novgorod region, the BBC reports. At Sarov, founded after World War II, the Russian nuclear weapons program was developed, and the site is still an important nuclear research center. The radioactive material was removed in a precautionary measure due to fires creeping toward the site but officials said that Sarov hasn't been damaged. Moscow has sent additional troops to Sarov to protect it.

For a naval military base southeast of Moscow, help came too late.

Russian authorities confirmed that a fire at a base in Kolomna destroyed several barracks as well as warehouses containing aeronautical equipment and vehicles, Defensenews.com reports.

Russian tabloid news Web site Life News first reported the fire at Kolomna, claiming the base was destroyed, with 200 planes burned and losses estimated to reach $670 million.

The fires destroyed residential houses, consumed farmland and left at least 2,000 people homeless, causing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to declare a state of emergency. The death toll Thursday rose to 50, officials said Thursday.

"A dead body was found as the houses burned down late last week were cleared in the Nizhny Novgorod region," a representative for Russia's Emergency Ministry was quoted as saying by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS. "A patient died in a hospital in the Voronezh Region, thus the death toll has reached 50."

"No more houses were burned over the past day," the representative added.

However, the fires keep spreading.

There were at least 589 fires raging on Thursday at a spread of 196,000 hectares, up from 529 fires Tuesday and 460 fires Monday.

The Kremlin has dispatched nearly 200,000 emergency workers and dozens of planes to fight the fires but it's proving an uphill battle due to strong winds and the hottest summer since temperature recording began 130 years ago.

The regions of Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh and Ryazan have been worst hit. In Moscow, people were encouraged to wear gauze masks because of the smoke that has clouded the capital for days.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin over the weekend stopped his summer vacation to fly into the crisis region, promising locals that their burned-down villages would be rebuilt before the winter.

Yet the Kremlin won't be able to replace the crops that have been consumed by the fire. Around one-fifth of Russia's expected grain harvest has been destroyed. Moscow Thursday said it might issue an export ban on Russian wheat that could come into effect as early as next week, sending prices on international markets through the roof.

In a bid to improve the reaction to future fires, Medvedev this week ordered Emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu to draw up a special program to boost the firefighting service, including increasing the number of vehicles and airplanes to move firefighters around.

earlier related report
Russia struggles against spreading wildfires
Moscow (AFP) Aug 5, 2010 - Russia struggled Thursday to contain the worst wildfires in its modern history that have killed 50 people, with the blazes spreading to the country's south and raising concerns about radiation levels.

With the severest heatwave in Russia in decades impacting areas as diverse as sales of anti-pollution masks and agricultural yields, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin dramatically banned grain exports until December 31.

"We have seen over the last 24 hours a decrease in the number of fires but not so much that we can rejoice," Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a news conference.

Shoigu expressed alarm that the situation was worsening in the south -- so far spared the worst of the fires -- including Rostov which is not one of the seven Russian regions where a state of emergency has been declared.

"Today, the situation has been getting worse in the Rostov region and we can note a movement of the fires towards the south," he said.

Shoigu said the emergency services were working flat out to prevent the fires spreading to a region in western Russia where the soils are still contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe of 1986 in neighbouring Ukraine.

"We are painstakingly controlling the situation in the Bryansk region. If a fire appears there, the radioactive particles could fly away with the smoke and a new polluted area could appear."

The death toll rose to 50 after a corpse was found in a burned-down house in the Nizhny Novgorod region and another victim died in hospital in the Voronezh region, the ministry said.

According to the ministry, 162,000 emergency workers have been deployed to douse the flames, which have been raging in the affected area in central Russia for a week.

Officials have lashed out at weekend picnickers who exacerbated the situation by leaving burning campfires which turned into major blazes. But there has been no suggestion of deliberate arson.

With the situation escalating, Medvedev warned Russia's top two naval commanders and sacked a number of high-ranking officers for failing to prevent a wildfire spreading to a military base last week.

Fires had ripped through a naval logistics base southeast of Moscow, destroying the staff headquarters, financial department, 13 warehouses containing aeronautical equipment and 17 storage areas containing vehicles.

The investigative committee of prosecutors said Thursday that it had opened a criminal inquiry into "major damage through negligence" over the military base fire.

The authorities have deployed thousands of workers to prevent an even greater calamity as wildfires raged within a few kilometres (miles) of the country's top secret nuclear research facility in Sarov, a city closed to foreigners.

Officials said all dangerous nuclear materials had been moved away. "The situation is under control," the Interfax news agency quoted an official as saying.

The thick smog from the wildfires that has pervaded Moscow and raised alarm over public health lifted somewhat Thursday. However, pharmacists reported huge sales of protective masks.

There was no sign yet of the heatwave abating, with temperatures again forecast to hit 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in Moscow Thursday and the hot weather expected to last at least another five days.

The heatwave has also destroyed 10 million hectares of Russia's arable land and Putin announced Thursday a ban until December 31 on Russian grain exports to avoid pressure on domestic prices.

"In connection with the unusually high temperatures and the drought, I consider it right to impose a temporary ban on the export from Russia of grain and other products produced from grain," Putin told a government meeting.

"We must not allow an increase in domestic prices and must preserve the headcount of our cattle," said Putin in comments broadcast on state television.

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