More than a hundred large fires aroused in the Chernobyl trace zone over the past four days

More than a hundred large wildfires and grass fires aroused in the Chernobyl trace zone (areas exposed to radioactive contamination as a result of the Chernobyl disaster 26 April 1986) over the past four days, while a steady warm weather kept. Most of the treeless area in the zone of Chernobyl trace is covered by fire now. The threat of large forest fires and fires in settlements, including abandoned or evacuated due to radioactive contamination, presents. Fires in the zone of Chernobyl trace pose a threat of secondary contamination. During herbal fires this threat is small, but what is the impact on human health of smoke from herbal fires on the contaminated areas, accumulated over twenty-five years since the Chernobyl disaster is unknown.

All of the currently active fires and burns in natural areas in the zone of Chernobyl trace, as well as in adjacent regions, were caused by man – by the deliberate arson or careless handling of fire. Fires which were caused by natural causes (lightning, meteor or volcanic eruptions - the other natural causes does not happen) are absent.

Here is the arrangement of wildland fires in the area of Chernobyl trace in the Russian Federation for the period from morning of April 22 to evening of April 26, 2011 according to fire information system FIRMS (pay attention: FIRMS can detect only enough large fires, a countless number of small fires are not detectable by remote methods):

http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/4703/alexeyyaroshenko.8/0_53f92_f3bd6206_XL.jpg

Yellow vertical hatching in the diagram shows the zone of the Chernobyl trace – as the hatching is thicker so the level of pollution is higher. Solid orange shading shows the most extensive tracts of dry pine forests, they are most dangerous in regard to fire. The solid red shading shows the major burnt areas of the last year, a dark blue shading shows the large tracts of drained out of last year's burnt areas, green circles show the settlements, fully or partially burned by last year's fires in natural areas (excluding summer residences and commercial buildings).

Currently, a team of Greenpeace is in the zone of Chernobyl trace in the Kaluga region. They help workers of State natural reserve Kaluzhskie Zaseki and local governments of neighboring villages to organize the protection valuable natural areas from dry grass fires.

That's now most open spaces in the area looks like - the land on a huge area is everywhere burned:

http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/5604/alexeyyaroshenko.8/0_53f94_110ac105_XL.jpg

Extinguishing of grass fire:

http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/5905/alexeyyaroshenko.8/0_53f97_fbbffb9_XL.jpg

http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/5704/alexeyyaroshenko.8/0_53f95_a7c64c7c_XL.jpg

Dosimeter’s indications (in the area of low pollution, mR/h):

http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/5302/alexeyyaroshenko.8/0_53f93_970b424_XL.jpg

Photos by Igor Podgorny