Radiation background in the epicentre of the fire in the Chernobyl zone exceeded 16 times

Acting Chairman of the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine Egor Firtsov said that in the epicentre of the forest fire in the Chernobyl zone the radiation background exceeds the normal indicators by more than 16 times. On April 5, he wrote about it on his Facebook page. According to him, the situation is extremely difficult, as the forest fire spread to the Chernobyl zone of 20 hectares. At the moment more than 100 hectares of forest mass are burning. In addition, Firtsov informed that radiation is higher than normal in the center of fire, however, exceeding normal values is observed only in the epicentre of fire. The readings of the device are 2.3 at the norm of 0.14. But this situation is only in the fire, Firtsov said. Let's remind how reported news agency, information on the fire came to Public service on emergency situations (GSChS) on April 4 at 13:22 (Moscow time). According to preliminary data, the fire occurred due to careless handling of fire and burning of dry grass.