Russian Reporter Wants to Film Report on Deadly Wildfires, Decides to Start One Himself

In the past few weeks, Siberia has been devastated by a series of wildfires that left dozens of people dead and thousands of residents homeless. But a Russian reporter on the scene, arriving after the fires swept through the federal region of Khakasia, thought that the scene didn’t look wildfire-y enough, so he set another wildfire for some b-roll.

(If you want an ironic soundtrack while you read the rest of this article, open a new tab and start playing “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”)

According to The Moscow Times, the Channel One reporter, Mikhail Akinchenko, was quickly arrested by the local police and admitted that he had dropped a lit cigarette butt into some dry grass, which anyone from Southern California will quickly tell you is a shockingly idiotic move.

“We admit that an employee of the channel committed an act of carelessness,” Channel One said in a statement. “The participants in this incident will be punished.”

Punished, yes! Considering the scale of the recent fires, and how “abnormally dry” the weather has been in Russia, Akinchenko should be severely punished! But apparently he won’t be punished enough:

Channel One’s deputy head Kirill Kleimyonov told the Russian News Service that the reporter had acted like an “idiot” but would not be fired.

Okay that pun was punishing enough.

[Image via Shutterstock.com]

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