Radioactive forest fire

‘Bad news’: Authorities scramble as lethal gamma rays surge at Chernobyl

Ukrainian authorities yesterday reported a spike in radiation levels in the restricted zone around Chernobyl, scene of the world’s worst nuclear accident, due to a forest fire.

Emergency services scrambled more than 130 firefighters, two planes and a helicopter to fight the blaze, which broke out on Saturday and engulfed 20ha in a forested area near the Chernobyl power plant.

“There is bad news — radiation is above normal in the fire’s centre,” Yegor Firsov, head of Ukraine’s state ecological inspection service, said on Facebook yesterday.

The post included a video with a Geiger counter (pictured) showing radiation at 16 times above normal.

The fire spread to about 100ha of forest, Mr Firsov wrote.

Radioactive radiation still present from the 1986 nuclear accident made fighting the fire more difficult, the country’s emergency services said, adding that there was no danger to the population.

Ukrainian authorities said radiation levels in the capital of Kiev, about 100km south of the fire, were within norms.

The fires were within the 2600sq km Chernobyl Exclusion

Zone established after the 1986 disaster to prevent exposure to lethal gamma. The zone is largely unpopulated, although about 200 people have remained despite orders to leave.

Fires are a routine threat in the forested region around the exclusion zone where an explosion 33 years ago ripped a roof off the fourth reactor at the nuclear power plant. The explosion sent a cloud of radioactive material high into the air above then-Soviet Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, as well as across Europe as Soviet officials denied there had been any accidents.

Dozens of people in Ukraine died in the immediate aftermath of the disaster and thousands more have since died from its effects, mainly exposure to radiation.

The three other reactors at Chernobyl continued to generate electricity until the power station finally closed in 2000.

A giant protective dome was put in place over the fourth reactor in 2016 in hopes of preventing further radiation leaks and setting the stage for the eventual dismantling of the structure.