Ukraine puts out major wildfires in Chernobyl exclusion zone

Ukraine says it has put out wildfires that erupted near the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant and ignited fears over the possible release of radioactivity dispersed during its infamous 1986 meltdown.

Fire crews have fought for 10 days to stop flames racing through woods and grassland in the 30km exclusion zone around the facility, and environmental activists claimed the blaze was many times larger than the authorities had revealed.

Ukraine’s emergencies service said some 500 people had battled the fire with the help of planes and helicopters, and they were grateful for a change in the weather that brought overnight rain to the area about 100km north of Kiev.

"In short the fire has been put out; the rain really helped. The level of background radiation is being measured constantly, but according to the data that we have everything is within normal range," said Yegor Firsov, acting head of Ukraine's state ecological inspectorate, on Tuesday.

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Mykola Chechotkin, the head of the emergencies service, reported to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy that the blaze had been extinguished, but it would take a few more days to fully damp down areas that were still smouldering.

“In total yesterday firefighting aircraft made 227 flights and used 500 tonnes of water. The background radiation in the exclusion zone remains within normal limits and is not increasing,” he said.

Mr Chechotkin assured Mr Zelenskiy that the blaze did not reach the defunct power plant, which was the scene of the world’s worst nuclear accident on April 26th, 1986.

Workers were testing how a power cut would affect the cooling of reactor number four when critical safety systems failed and led to explosions that ripped open the building, heavily contaminating the surrounding area and spewing out radiation that would drift northwestward across Europe.

First responders

Thirty-one workers and firemen died during or shortly after the accident, and another 18 first responders are believed to have died of radiation-related conditions in subsequent years.

Estimates of the total number of deaths ultimately caused by the disaster range wildly, from the 4,000 suggested in a 2005 United Nations report to the 200,000 predicted by Greenpeace.

The Soviet authorities’ attempts to cover up the catastrophe helped to instil a deep mistrust of officials in people living in Ukraine and nearby countries that remains strong today.

Greenpeace in neighbouring Russia said on Monday that the Ukraine blaze was the worst to hit the area since the accident, spanned tens of thousands of hectares and was just one kilometre from the facility where about 2,000 people still monitor safety systems.

A local man has been arrested for sparking the fire by burning dry grass.

Thousands of tourists visit "the zone" every year, and its popularity has been boosted by the success of the recent hit HBO drama Chernobyl.