Forest fire in Chernobyl's nuclear zone stirs controversy

A forest fire in the Chernobyl nuclear exclusion zone spread further Tuesday, fanned by strong winds, authorities said, insisting that radiation levels remained normal.

On Sunday, Yegor Firsov, acting head of Ukraine's state ecological inspection service, said in a Facebook post that radiation levels at the centre of the fire were higher than normal.

But government agencies rejected that finding and Firsov himself later withdrew his remarks.

A geiger counter measures a radiation level at a site of fire burning in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, outside the village of Rahivka, Ukraine.

Firefighters have been battling a blaze that broke out at the weekend in the wooded zone around the ruined Chernobyl reactor that exploded in 1986 in the world's worst nuclear accident.

The fire covered some 35 hectacres (87 acres), having tripled in size due to strong winds, the emergencies service said in a statement, adding that background radiation levels remained "within normal limits".

Police said the blaze broke out after a man set fire to dry grass near the exclusion zone.

An aerial view of a forest fire burning near the village of Volodymyrivka in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine.

An unhabited house burns in the middle of a forest fire near the village of Volodymyrivka, in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine.

Chernobyl zone workers extinguish a forest fire burning near the village of Volodymyrivka, in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine.

Fires occur regularly in the forests near the Chernobyl power plant.