Firefighters in the no-go buffer zone around Chernobyl station in northern Ukraine today, Monday, continue their relentless attempts to control the wildfires burning in the region for more than a week.
About 400 firefighters are participating in the rescue efforts today.
Environmental experts fear that fires may spark radioactive ash on the ground, and that radiation contaminated smoke may reach the capital, Kiev.
The explosion in Chernobyl, 1986, about 100 km north of Kiev, is the worst nuclear disaster in history.
The official emergency service confirmed that despite fires, radiation levels appeared at the acceptable rate.
The authorities did not announce the area of the fire today. And the authorities announced two days ago that the fire extends to about 3,500 hectares.
Igor Versov, a prominent environmental official, said after the fire broke out that radiation in the almost uninhabited area was 16 times higher than normal.
The authorities attributed the fires in the region and other regions of Ukraine to relatively dry weather conditions.
Ukraine began facilitating tourist tours to the site in 2011 after the radiation levels caused by the disaster fell to levels that the government described as permissible.
Ukraine recorded the largest number of tourists last year to the Chernobyl buffer zone, near its northern border with Belarus, where more than 100,000 people visited it.