Radiation rises to 16 times above norm as firefighters battle blaze near Chernobyl

A Geiger counter shows increased radiation levels against the background of the forest fire burning near the village of Volodymyrivka in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Picture: Yaroslav Yemelianenko/AP

A Geiger counter shows increased radiation levels against the background of the forest fire burning near the village of Volodymyrivka in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Picture: Yaroslav Yemelianenko/AP

Published Apr 6, 2020

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Kiev - Firefighters in the Chernobyl exclusion zone of northern

Ukraine on Monday entered their third day of battling a forest fire

in the area, still contaminated with radiation from the nuclear power

plant disaster more than three decades ago.

Radiation in the area was 16 times higher than normal background

levels, a senior environmental official, Egor Firsov, said in a

statement.

About 25 hectares of forestland within the predominantly uninhabited

area were ablaze on Monday morning, the State Emergency Service said

in a statement. No victims have been reported.

About a fourth of the blaze was in the Chernobyl zone. The blaze was

reported to have spread to an area of more than 100 hectares over the

weekend.

About 140 firefighters have been working to extinguish the blaze.

Firsov, who heads a state environmental watchdog, said the blaze is

believed to have developed from a grass fire.

An aerial view of a forest fire burning near the village of Volodymyrivka in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine. Picture: Emergency Situation Ministry via AP

Grass fires are common in the early spring as farmers conduct

controlled burnings to remove brush. An investigation is under way.

Kiev police said later Monday that a 27-year-old resident of a small

town outside the exclusion zone was being investigated on suspicion

that he could have started the blaze.

The man, who could face up to five years in prison, is suspected of

having burned grass and rubbish, and was unable to contain the fire

because of windy weather, according to a police statement.

The 1986 reactor meltdown and explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear

power plant, about 100 kilometres north of Kiev, is considered the

worst nuclear disaster in history.

An uninhabited house burns in the middle of a forest fire near the village of Volodymyrivka, in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Picture: Yaroslav Yemelianenko/AP

Ukraine began facilitating tourism to the site in 2011 as the

radiation released during the disaster had subsided to what the

government deemed to be permissible levels.

Last year Ukraine recorded the highest number of tourists in the

Chernobyl exclusion zone, near its northern border with Belarus, with

more than 100,000 visitors

dpa

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