【英语国际】莫斯科死于火灾和热浪的人数急剧上升

Antonina Babenko, who survived World War II on a Belarussian battle front, spent her final days in a sweltering Moscow apartment, struggling against a choking smog that rolled in through open windows.

The 86-year-old Soviet army intelligence veteran collapsed on Friday, when contaminants in the city's air were five times the acceptable norm, and died the next day in a hospital, her niece said Tuesday. The cause was listed as a heart attack.

Hundreds of ailing and elderly Muscovites have died since a heat wave gripped much of Russia in mid-July and spawned wildfires that have blanketed the capital with a noxious, milky-white haze. How and why they died is a matter of controversy. By official count, 52 people have died nationwide, outside big cities, as a direct result of forest fires. As bodies piled up in morgues, authorities declined to say how many deaths could be linked indirectly to the twin crises of heat and fires, feeding rumors of a coverup.

This week the city's chief health official announced that the daily death toll in Moscow in recent days had reached 700, nearly double what he called the norm, and attributed the increase to the extreme conditions, particularly the heat.

'This is no secret,' said the official, Andrei Seltsovsky. 'Everybody thinks we're making secrets out of it.'

After Mr. Seltsovsky gave his estimated death toll Monday at a televised meeting of the city council, his federal counterpart, Health Minister Tatyana Golikova, called it 'bewildering' and dismissed it as unofficial.

The average daily death toll in Moscow last July was 307, according to the Moscow civil registry office. Mr. Seltsovsky said the average daily death toll 'during normal times' is 360 to 380, in a city of about 11 million people. He said the city's morgues are filling up, with 1,300 of the 1,500 slots taken.

Struggling to keep up, morgues and cemeteries have added workers and work shifts. Istra cemetery, just west of the city, registered 21 burials Monday, the most in a day since World War II.

Independent experts say a rise in mortality isn't exceptional for a city ill-prepared for such temperatures, even without the smog.

Temperatures have soared into the 90s or higher every day since July 15, and most Moscow dwellings lack air conditioning.

But the death toll is sensitive because officials at all levels face public criticism for their handling of the heat emergency and the fires, which continued to burn Tuesday in more than 550 places across Russia, including about 40 near Moscow.

二战中在白俄罗斯战斗前线幸存下来的安东尼娜•巴本科（Antonina Babenko）生命的最后几天在莫斯科一所闷热的公寓里度过，令人窒息的烟雾通过开着的窗子涌入房间，令她痛苦不已。

她的侄女周二说，这位86岁的前苏联军队情报老兵周五病倒，当时莫斯科城里的污染物是可接受程度的五倍，第二天她在医院死去，病因为心脏病发作。

为了应对局势，太平间和墓地已增加了人手和轮班。莫斯科以西的Istra墓地周一有21起葬礼，是二战以来最多的一天。

独立专家表示，死亡率急剧上升对于没有为这样的天气作好准备的城市来说并不意外，即使没有烟雾也是一样。

7月15日以来每天气温都在90华氏度或以上，多数莫斯科人的住宅没有空调。

由于各级领导面临着公众对他们对热浪紧急情况和火灾处理不利的批评，死亡人数非常敏感。周二大火继续在俄罗斯境内超过550个火点燃烧，其中在莫斯科附近约有40个火点。