Kiev – Firefighters in the Chernobyl exclusion zone of northern Ukraine on Monday entered their third day of battling a forest fire in the area, still contaminated with radiation from the nuclear power plant disaster more than three decades ago.
Radiation in the area was 16 times higher than normal background levels, a senior environmental official, Egor Firsov, said in a statement.
About 25 hectares of forestland within the predominantly uninhabited area were ablaze on Monday morning, the State Emergency Service said in a statement. No victims have been reported.
About a fourth of the blaze was in the Chernobyl zone. The blaze …read more
Source:: Independent Online
