Global Courant
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev fired emergency minister Yury Ilyin on Saturday.
Fourteen people have died in major wildfires in northeastern Kazakhstan, the highest number in years in the Central Asian country.
The Emergencies Ministry said on Saturday that 316 people had been evacuated but the situation was under control and homes were safe, despite high temperatures and changing wind direction hampering the response.
“A total of 14 bodies have been found,” the ministry said in a statement, after previously announcing it was searching for trapped foresters as fires engulfed 60,000 hectares (148,000 acres) of land.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev fired Emergency Situations Minister Yury Ilyin earlier on Saturday.
More than 1,000 people, mostly from defense and emergency ministries, are taking part in the effort to put out the fires.
According to local authorities in the vast ex-Soviet country, the massive fires were started by lightning on Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his condolences to Tokayev.
