After the flames: the Chernobyl zone fires of April 2020
A look back at how the wildfires in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone were reported, and what was known about their end.
What did it mean to say that the fires in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone were out? On 20 April 2020, that question was still open in the public mind, six days after officials of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine announced, on 14 April 2020, that all open fires in the zone had been successfully extinguished.
The wildfires were a series of blazes that began burning inside the zone in April 2020. The zone, also known as the 30-Kilometre Zone or simply The Zone, was established shortly after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union.
The announcement by the State Emergency Service marked the point at which rescuers reported no open fires remaining in the area. As reported at the time, it came as the central message of the response: the burning had been brought under control.
Later accounts placed the episode in a longer frame. The fires were largely extinguished within two weeks of starting, and at least one suspect was later arrested for alleged arson.
Looking back, 20 April 2020 sits in the days just after the emergency service's declaration, when the focus moved from fighting the flames to the aftermath. The episode showed a state agency announcing a concrete result within days, and the wider story of the fires continued to be told afterwards, including through the arrest of a suspect.
