* Wind-whipped fires destroy hundreds of homes
* Blazes follow devastating wildfires in central Russia
Reuters AlertNet 2 Sep 10;
MOSCOW, Sept 2 (Reuters) - A new wave of wildfires swept through villages in southern Russia on Thursday, killing at least two people and destroying hundreds of homes, officials and news reports said.
Fires driven by high winds destroyed nearly 500 buildings in the Volgograd and Saratov provinces, including 342 homes, Emergencies Ministry spokewoman Irina Andriyanova told the ITAR-Tass news agency.
The blazes in the provinces on the Volga River southeast of Moscow followed wildfires that killed at least 54 in central Russia in July and August amid Russia's worst heat wave ever recorded.
Most of the damage on Thursday was in the Vologograd province, where a man was killed when a forest fire spread to his house, regional Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman Yelena Rodionova told Reuters.
A woman was killed and 13 people injured in a separate district, state-run RIA news agency reported, citing provincial administration officials.
Andriyanova said the fires on Thursday affected 15 villages and towns, and that 10 centres had been set up to shelter evacuees, ITAR-Tass reported.
Winds gusted up to 25 metres per second (56 miles per hour) in temperatures that approached 40 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit), Rodionova said. (Reporting and writing by Conor Humphries and Steve Gutterman; editing by Peter Graff)
