When a village near Poliske was evacuated amid zone fires
A look back at the evacuation ordered as forest fires kept spreading inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
What did it mean when fire reached the edge of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone's abandoned landscape? On 11 April 2020, it meant an evacuation. A village near the mostly abandoned town of Poliske was cleared as forest fires continued to spread inside the zone in Ukraine.
The evacuation came while the blaze was still growing. As reported at the time, the fires were not contained on that date, and residents of the village near Poliske were moved out as a precaution.
The fires were part of a series of wildfires that began burning inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone in April 2020. Poliske itself was mostly abandoned, so the people affected were those in the nearby village.
What followed
The outcome came later. The fires were largely extinguished within two weeks of their start, and at least one suspect was arrested for alleged arson. None of that was settled on 11 April 2020, when the priority was moving people away from the advancing flames.
