1,800 evacuated in Siberia after losing heat supply

IRKUTSK - More than 1,800 residents in Russia's Far East were evacuated from their homes which lost heat supply after accidents at a nearby thermal power plant, Itar-Tass reported Monday.

They are from the Khovu-Aksy settlement of the Russian Republic of Tuva with a population of 37,000.

According to the report, both the thermal power plant's main and reserve boilers broke down in recent days, leaving 103 homes and 12 social facilities without heat supply, at a time when local temperature dropped to minus 38 degrees Celsius.

The evacuees were sent to government shelters or stayed at the homes of their relatives, while local workers raced against time to repair the heat supply system.

A federal team led by Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Pavel Plato flew in from Moscow on Sunday to assess the situation.