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