Firefighters struggle to control fires near Chernobyl

About struggle
The struggle may refer to:

The plant was the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident in 1986.

The blaze has burned through over 3,000 hectares in a week and elevated radiation levels have been recorded near the fires.

Firefighters struggle to control fires near Chernobyl

The Chornobyl power station contaminated a large swathe of Europe when its fourth reactor exploded in April 1986, with the area immediately around the plant the worst affected.

People are not allowed to live within 30km of the power station, which is some 100km north of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.

The three other reactors at Chornobyl continued to generate electricity until the power station finally closed in 2000.

A giant protective dome was put in place over the fourth reactor in 2016.

Fires occur regularly in the forests near the Chornobyl power plant.

The Ukrainian government has mobilized helicopters and firefighting planes to drop water on the fire.

Police said the blaze broke out after a man set fire to dry grass near the exclusion zone.

The man was detained by police.

Last weekend, Yegor Firsov, acting head of Ukraine’s state ecological inspection service, said in a Facebook post that radiation levels at the center of the fire were higher than normal.

However, government agencies rejected that finding, and Mr. Firsov himself later withdrew his remarks.