Kyiv officials have issued a warning to citizens to close their windows and stay indoors as smoke covered the city on the evening of April 16, caused by a flare-up of forest fires in the Chornobyl exclusion zone. Background radiation levels are within the normal range, officials said.
As of 11:10 p.m., Kyiv had an Air Quality Index of 380, rated “hazardous,” according to tracking website IQAir.
“The smoke is caused by the fires in Zhytomyr Oblast and the exclusion zone, as well as the northwesterly wind,” the Kyiv city administration said in a statement.
Two days after they were mostly extinguished, forest fires in the Chornobyl exclusion zone flared up in three new spots due to strong winds, State Emergency Service Chief Mykola Chechotkin said in a video statement.
The new fires were not caused by a separate dust storm that had also raged through Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast at the same time of day, he said. The fires do not pose a threat to the nuclear plant or other critical infrastructure, he added.
Fires initially broke out on April 4 and were contained on April 14 thanks to rain and the efforts of firefighters. Some smoldering areas remained, however, and were reignited by strong winds.
Read more: Fires rage in Chornobyl zone, but no radiation risk, nuclear agency says (PHOTOS)
