Ukraine says only small burning fires reamain in Chernobyl Nuclear Zone after rain

Ukraine confirmed that there was no visibly burning fire in the Chernobyl exclusion zone on April 14 and only smouldering remains of the blaze was present. Mykola Chechotkin, the head of the emergencies service, told President Volodymyr Zelensky in a conference call that the background radiation in the exclusion zone remains within normal limits and is not increasing.

The fire broke out on April 3 in a forest area near the Chernobyl power plant and was spreading at an alarming rate with new blazes emerging every day. Satellite images that surfaced online showed that the fire had spread to 34,400 hectares of land. Green Peace Russia alerted on April 13 that the forest fire was just one kilometre away from the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant and posed a radiation risk.

The Moscow-based international non-profit organisation said that there were two fires in the exclusion zone of which one was entirely inside with covering an area of ​​about 12.4 thousand hectares. It started on April 8 and the nearest edge was around 1.5 kilometres from the sarcophagus of a nuclear power plant.

The other blaze, which started on April 3, was around 39 kilometres away from the sarcophagus of the nuclear power plant. It was burning on the border of the exclusion zone covering an area of 34 thousand hectares. 

Read: Ukraine: Forest Fire Raging Near Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Poses Radiation Risk

In April 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant polluted a large part of Europe after its fourth reactor exploded, resulting in the immediate death of two operating staff. Due to exposure to high levels of radiation, 134 emergency service members were hospitalised in days ahead, of which 28 people lost their lives. The Chernobyl disaster is considered the worst nuclear disaster the world has ever seen.

Read: Radiation Levels 16 Times Above Normal After Fire Hit Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Zone

'No change in radiation levels'

A 2,600-square-kilometer (1,000-square-mile) Chernobyl Exclusion Zone was established after the April 1986 disaster at the plant that sent a cloud of radioactive fallout over much of Europe. However, the Ukrainian emergency situations services maintained that the radiation levels in the exclusion zone did not change.

Read: Ukraine: Forest Fire Raging Near Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Poses Radiation Risk

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(With agency inputs | Image source: AP)