OREANDA-NEWS. There was another fire in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. This time the fire area is in the forest near the village of Ilyintsy.

"At 8:40 pm, the fire is localized on an area of 3 hectares. As of 7:00 am on June 22, there is a smouldering of grass flooring, hemp and wood," the report says. 11 people and three units of equipment were involved in extinguishing the fire.

"If decontamination was carried out in the area of the station itself, there were no decontaminations in the adjacent territories, in the forests. Radioactive isotopes have accumulated there, and there is a danger that all this will rise with smoke during fires," said retired Colonel Vladimir Romanyuk, who once took part in the Chernobyl disaster response.

In April, the fire that started in Chernobyl destroyed more than 11 thousand hectares of forest, the environmental inspection recorded excess radiation in the epicenter of the fire. The fire was located 2 km away from the storage facilities, where the most radioactive waste was collected.

The culprit of the fire was a 37-year-old local resident, who dumped smouldering remnants of garbage on dry grass. He was detained by the police and it was planned to initiate a criminal case under Article 245 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (destruction or damage of forest areas).