MOSCOW: Eight people have died as forest and brush fires flared up again in Russia’s southern farmlands, burning down 532 homes and buildings, officials said on Friday.

“At the moment we have information on eight dead,” an emergency services spokesman was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

Strong winds overnight stoked fires that destroyed 532 buildings, including 400 homes, in about 20 villages in the Volgograd and Saratov regions, some 1,000 kilometres southeast of Moscow, emergency officials said.

“About 1,000 people are without shelter. Eighteen people have been injured,” the emergency ministry said in a statement.

But authorities said winds had subsided and most fires had been brought under control later on Friday.

The fresh fires came as Russia still had to assess the full cost of a record drought and wildfires that destroyed over a quarter of the country’s crop this summer — prompting a temporary ban on grain exports.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday pledged the two fire-struck regions one billion rubles (25.4 million dollars, 19.8 million euros) in emergency aid to rebuild after fire storms that have raged for months.

“This money should go to compensate citizens for their lost property,” Putin said in a meeting with emergency minister Sergei Shoigu, a transcript of which was posted on the government’s website.