They tried to set fire to the Siversky forest

The fire destroyed about a hectare of grass in the Siversky Forest. If it were not for the vigilance of local residents who called the fire brigade, the forest fire could not have been avoided.

As local residents told Novaya Gazeta, the fire on the territory of the former Lesnoye holiday home occurred on April 20.

In the village of Siversky, Gatchina District, a forest park has been cut down for illegal individual housing construction for several years now. The territory is put up for sale by Lesnoye 2 LLC. However, the owners who bought the plots back in 2010 do not have building permits.

As activists of the initiative group “Let’s Protect the Siversky Forest” note, on April 17, the Thirteenth Arbitration Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the previous instance, invalidating the purchase and sale agreement for the lands of the former holiday home.

The process was initiated by the territorial department of the Federal Property Management Agency. The defendants - the administration of the Gatchina district and Lesnoye LLC - lost both cases.

According to local activist Nadezhda Gustyakova, on April 20, they wanted to set the forest on fire: “When everything was extinguished, we found a large pile of brushwood - a fire pit. In addition, in the forest there is a lot of dead wood, dry trees with cracks. So, they were probably doused with liquid for ignition. After all, in order for dead wood to catch fire, you need to cover it with something, but everything burned from inside the hollow. And of course, we were waiting for this, but not so brazenly.

Nadezhda suggested that the arson could have been started by supporters of the construction: “Those gentlemen threatened last year that they would burn the forest. By the way, in the spring of that year they set the arson on the side of the river. Then they also put it all out.”

Next week, the initiative group intends to hold a cleanup day in Siversky Forest - a group of activists will remove household garbage and dead wood.