Firefighters Struggling Against Blazes Near Chernobyl Site

April 10, 2020

Radiation levels have spiked as wildfires in the Chernobyl exclusion zone continue burning with over 400 Ukrainian firefighters struggling to contain them.

Source dpa, Hamburg, Germany

Forest fires rage in the background near the Chernobyl exclusion site in Ukraine.

KIEV, Ukraine - Forest fires in the radiation contaminated Chernobyl exclusion zone have persisted for the past week as Ukrainian firefighters on Friday struggled to contain the blazes.

A force of nearly 400 firefighters was working on Friday to extinguish the series of blazes throughout the predominantly uninhabited region, almost three times as many firefighters as a week ago.

Authorities have attributed blazes in the Chernobyl zone and elsewhere in Ukraine in recent weeks to relatively dry conditions after a winter that lacked sufficient precipitation and snow cover.

Environmental experts fear the fires could stir up radioactive ash in the ground. Ukraine's State Emergency Service has said the radiation levels have appeared to be within the acceptable norm.

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.

The recent forest fires have raised concerns among residents of the capital, Kiev, that smoke potentially contaminated with radiation could blow into the city.

Authorities assured on Friday that radiation levels in Kiev did "not exceed natural background values," according to a statement by the State Emergency Service.

A senior environmental official, Egor Firsov, said amid the beginning of the fires last weekend that radiation in the Chernobyl exclusion zone was detected at 16 times higher than normal background levels.

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