Fires deliberately set around Chernobyl plant

Two fires -- one now extinguished, the other still burning -- were deliberately set by an individual who said he set grass alight "for fun." The man was apprehended but the larger fire still burning has spread to 250 acres of forest, and has increased the levels of radiation to substantially higher than "normal" levels, according to news reports. These increased radiation levels have complicated the ability of firefighters to tackle the blaze.

Forest fires have broken out in the Chernobyl Zone in the past, and, reports Radio Free Europe:

"Scientists have been concerned for decades about potentially catastrophic wildfires inside the exclusion zone around the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine -- the site in 1986 of the world's worst nuclear accident.

"That's because trees and brush in the zone have absorbed radioactive particles that can be released into the air by the smoke of a wildfire."

(Image shows resuspension and atmospheric transport of radionuclides due to wildfires near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant 2015. Work of:Evangeliou N, Zibtsev S, Myroniuk V, Zhurba M, Hamburger T, Stohl A, Balkanski Y, Paugam R, Mousseau T, Møller A, Kireev S)