Belarus
Belarus
Fires burning in radioactively contaminated terrain
19 July 2002
800 Hectares of Forest on Fire in Chernobyl-Contaminated Zone
Source: Agence France Presse, 19 July 2002
Eight hundred hectares of forest and peat were on fire Friday in an area of Belarus contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Belarussian media reported.
The ex-Soviet republic’s emergency ministry Valery Astapov appeared on national television to assure the population that the situation was not dangerous. “No rise in radioactivity levels has been observed in the villages near the fires,” he said.
The minister added that 1,000 men and 150 vehicles were taking part in efforts to contain the blazes.
The authorities in Belarus blamed the military, who delayed asking for help while they struggled to extinguish the fires which began near the Poleski testing range in the south of the country.
The drought and searing heat, with temperatures of 38 degrees, contributed to the spread of the forest fires.
A reactor in the Chernobyl nuclear power station in Ukraine exploded in April 1986, which contaminated large areas in the north of the country along with stretches of Belarus and Russia. Between 15,000 and 30,000 have died since the disaster in 1986 and nearly six million people continue to live in contaminated zones, according to UN figures. Ukraine closed down the fourth and last reactor of the Chernobyl power plant in December 2000.
Latest Satellite Image :
The MODIS scene of 17 July 2002 (0855 UTC) shows fires burning in the contaminated region of Belarus. The critical fires are represented by the red dots in the upper part of the satellite image.
Source: MODIS
Map showing the location of fires burning in the South of Belarus, as depicted by MODIS on 19 July 2002. © Source: Encarta Interactive World Atlas
Photographs of the Contaminated Lands in Belarus
Evacuated village in the radioactively contaminated zone in the South of Belarus (Gomel).
Source: GFMC
Forest fire scars in the radioactively contaminated zone in the South of Belarus (Gomel).
Source: GFMC
Aerial view of the radioactively contaminated zone in Gomel Region, Belarus.
Source: GFMC
Forest fire prevention posters used for public awareness raising in Belarus. . Source: GFMC
For more information on fires burning in radioactively contaminated terrain:
1. Archived Belarus fire reports:
https://gfmc.online/current/archive/archive.htm#BELARUS
2. Literature:
Goldammer, J.G. and V.V.Furyaev. 1996. Fire in Ecosystems of Boreal Eurasia. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 390 p.
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