Russians flock to wildfire sites in search of excitement

16 Aug, 2010 12:20 / Updated 14 years ago

As Russia’s firefighters make enormous efforts to fight hundreds of wildfires raging across the country, ordinary citizens are stepping up to help. However, it turns out their motives are not as heroic as they may seem.

While to many the wildfires are an incentive to leave as far as possible from their source, some tend to take volunteer firefighting as some sort of extreme sport.

Volunteer groups are being dispatched to combat wildfires everyday. However, according to fire-prevention centers, their main goal is not extinguishing the fires, but getting fun photos.

Images of 12-year-old children wearing a firefighter’s kit are common on Internet social sites these days.