The forest fire ravaging the exclusion zone around Chernobyl continues to spread, its area multiplied by three due to gusts of wind but without increase in radioactivity, Ukrainian authorities said on Tuesday. The fire broke out on Saturday in the exclusion zone surrounding, within a radius of 30 kilometers, the damaged Chernobyl power plant, the scene in 1986 of the worst nuclear accident in history.
On Tuesday, the territory hit by the flames went from 10.5 hectares in the morning to 35 hectares in the early afternoon, said the state service for emergency situations. Planes dumped 72 tonnes of water onto the fire and two helicopters and approximately 120 firefighters and rescuers are deployed on site. According to the same source, the " radiation rate in Kiev and its region does not exceed the natural level ".
Sunday, the acting head of the government ecological inspection, Iegor Firsov, had however indicated on Facebook that the radiation levels in the epicenter of the fire greatly exceeded the standards. Several Ukrainian state agencies then denied the information, and Mr. Firsov himself came back on Monday.
The fire was caused by a young resident of a village near the Chernobyl area, who faces up to five years in prison for " destroying vegetation ". The 27-year-old said he set the grass on fire " for fun, " police said. One of the reactors at the Chernobyl plant exploded on April 26, 1986 contaminating, according to some estimates, up to three quarters of Europe. The area within a radius of 30 kilometers around the damaged power station has remained largely abandoned.