Firefighters have extinguished eight wildfires in the Russian Far East in the past twenty-four hours, but are still battling numerous forest fires in the area, an emergencies ministry spokesman said on Friday. \"Forty one forest fires covering an area of 1,334 hectares were registered in the Far East over the past 24 hours,\" the spokesman said. He said firefighters were still trying to put out almost two dozen fires. A massive heatwave in central European Russia part caused massive wildfires, which killed 62 people and left thousands homeless last summer.