Open flames at a 60-hectare forest fire in Kazakhstan’s Semey Ormany reserve had been extinguished by early July 17, although hundreds of personnel remained at the site tackling isolated smouldering hotspots.
The fire prompted the evacuation of 190 children and 20 adults from a nearby summer camp. Police officers carried some of the youngest children to waiting vehicles as staff tried to prevent panic and move everyone out quickly.
The blaze was reported on the morning of July 16 in the Kamyshenka forestry area of the reserve’s Borodulikha branch. By that afternoon, it had spread across an estimated 60 hectares. Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov sent both ministers responsible for the response to the Abai region to oversee the operation.
As of 7 a.m. on July 17, the operation involved 769 personnel, 191 vehicles, and eight helicopters. Aircraft had completed 219 water drops, delivering 474 tons of water. Crews worked through the night to contain the fire and continued soaking smouldering areas after the open flames were extinguished.
Image: EcologyofQazaqstan
The Emergency Situations Ministry said the threat to Kamyshenka had been lifted. Ground teams and aircraft remained in place while the authorities worked toward full containment and continued monitoring the area.
The fire broke out in the same reserve where 14 forestry workers died in June 2023. That blaze burned more than 60,000 hectares and caused damage estimated at 161.6 billion tenge. It also led to criminal cases and a major overhaul of the reserve’s equipment.
In May 2024, a court sentenced the reserve’s acting director and the head of its Novoshulbinsk branch to seven years in prison for fire-safety violations that led to multiple deaths. The Abai regional appeals court upheld the convictions in August. Two other officials received two-year prison terms later that year, and the Prosecutor-General’s Office said in January 2025 that all criminal cases linked to the disaster had concluded.
Kazakhstan has since invested in new wildfire equipment and monitoring. In June, the authorities unveiled a specialized firefighting vehicle developed after the 2023 disaster. By April, an AI early detection system using 37 cameras covered 510,000 hectares of Semey Ormany.
Dangerous conditions persist across the region. Kazhydromet forecast temperatures of 35–37°C in the Abai region on July 18, with winds reaching 15–20 meters per second in the southwest. High fire danger was expected in the northwest and center of the region, with extreme fire danger in the south.
