YEREVAN. -  In the first six months 375 fires have been registered  in Armenia, while the figure for relevant period of previous year is 342. This year saw 9.6 percent increase in frequency of fires, concluded a press conference on fire safety issues on Friday.

This year fires caused 8 deaths and 18 people received various bodily injuries. The volume of damaged constituted AMD 100 million.

Deputy Head of Armenian Rescue Service Pavel Gezalyan said that 2010 was considered record-breaking in terms of fires frequency, however current year shows firm tendency of claiming the title. Gezalyan said that firefighters are often faced with a variety of artificial obstacles - illegal constructions, vineyard trellis, soil columns (obstacle for the fire trucks), insufficient number of hydrants and water shortages among others.