The beginning of August appeared to be hot for many employees of the Association of Guard and Legal Companies “Berkut”. Our company could not stand aside from the natural disaster, which happened as a result of mass forest fires including the area of Nizhny Novgorod Region. Volunteer employees from the Berkut Security Company joined the composite team, created in order to help the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Administration of Vyksa Region to extinguish fires. The team included the most worthy candidates from among the experienced private security guards, able to complete the given tasks effectively and courageously under difficult conditions. The team was led by Sergey Ovchinnikov, director of one of the departments of the Berkut Association.

The creation of the composite team was approved by Militia Major General V. Kabatskiy, Assistant Director of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, and the team was trained and instructed by Militia Colonel A. Smonin, Assistant Director of the Public security Militia of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, himself.

On arriving in the mission area, the composite group was included into the forces and resources of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate for Nizhny Novgorod Region, completing tasks within Vyksa Region. S. Ovchinnikov, supervisor of the composite team, was given a task by Militia Major General V. Kabatskiy, Assistant Director of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate: to ensure public order maintenance in populated places of Vyksa Region, pillage prevention and other illegal actions, as part of patrols together with Ministry of Internal Affairs employees.

In the process of task completion, within the town of Vyksa, members of the composite team patrolled for two days the grounds of Comprehensive School N3 and 8, the premises of the town administration and the Humanitarian Aid Distribution Point.

However, on the night of the 8^th/9^th of August the situation suddenly became complicated: one of the forest areas was suddenly attacked by fire, and mobile, well-organized and reliable team was required, able to enforce effectively and as quickly as possible the force and means of the Emergencies Ministry.

In answer to the question of V. Kabatskiy, Assistant Director of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of Nizhny Novgorod Region, if there are volunteers in the composite team of private security companies, S. Ovchinnikov, supervisor of the team, reported that all the members of staff are ready to complete the given task. No one refused, though the struggle with fire itself was not supposed to be one of the tasks of the composite team.

Members of the composite team were provided with fire backpacks and was placed under orders of Vladimir Lebedev, Vice-Governor of the region, as a mobile reserve team.

During the next three days the work schedule of the composite team was as follows: getting up at 5.30 a.m., breakfast, a short briefing at the Emergencies Ministry Headquarters, conducted by E. Gonyaev, Deputy Head of local Emergencies Administration, himself, and leaving for the fire line.

The fire line is not a metaphor; the team’s task included controlling the edge of burning of the forest verdure and plants in places, hard to reach for mobile machines, as well as in those areas, where it was hard to ensure sufficient water supply. The composite team completed the task along with the calculations of the Fire-Fighting Service of the Emergencies Ministry and the volunteers of the Metallurgical Works Plant. The composite team was helped by Vadim Derzhavtsev, leading expert from the local forestry, to find a way in the labyrinths of the forest quarters.

Work was carried out in the area of Ozyorniy Settlement (40 km from the town of Vyksa, at the boundary with Ryasan Region) under extreme conditions aroused by high smoke concentration and a strong possibility of falling of trees with burned root system and the unpredictable movement and outbreaks of fire. Under such conditions, the composite team worked till 6 or 7 p.m. with a short bag lunch break. Having passed off the object to the arrived shift, the team left for the base point. On the following day everything repeated…

A. Sidorenko, Director of Non-state Educational Establishment of Further Professional Education “Berkut-Сadet”, was also sent to the area of operation, with a team of their employees, in order to provide moral and psychological as well as hands-on assistance in the tasks performed by the members of staff.

On 10 August 2010, Militia Major General Victor Kabatskiy, Assistant Director of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of Nizhny Novgorod Region, in the presence of Militia Major General Victor Tsyganov, Assistant Director of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of Nizhny Novgorod Region, gave an exceptionally high appraisal to the organization and efficiency of the composite team’s work.

During the talk, members of staff, by general consent, made a note of the highest standard possible under the given circumstances, the organization of living conditions and accommodation for the members of staff by the town’s administration and the heads of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, and also underlined the warm attitude of the locals to the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and in particular, to the representatives of private security companies, who arrived with the aim to rectify the natural disaster and its consequences.

The task completed, the composite team left for Nizhny Novgorod. At the meeting with directors of private security companies, devoted to the results of the work of the composite team, A. Shmonin made a note of the high level of organization of its actions and thanked members of the team personally for the courage they showed in the fight with nature.