INCIDENT TIMELINE
01:23:44 – Explosion.
01:26:03 – Fire alarm activated.
“Call everybody, everybody” – Firefighters alerted of fire at Reactor’s 3 and 4.
1:28 (approx) – Firefighters led by Vladimir Pravik leave the reactor's fire station.
01:35 (approx) – Fire attack initiated on roof of turbine hall. Arrival of firefighters from Pripyat city fire station, led by Viktor Kibenok.
Grigorii Khmel, a fire engine driver, said: "We arrived there at 10 or 15 minutes to two in the morning… We saw graphite scattered about. Misha asked: Is that graphite? I kicked it away. But one of the fighters on the other truck picked it up. It’s hot, he said. The pieces of graphite were of different sizes, some big, some small, enough to pick them up … We didn’t know much about radiation. Even those who worked there had no idea. There was no water left in the trucks. Misha filled a cistern and we aimed the water at the top. Then those boys who died went up to the roof – Vashchik, Kolya and others, and Volodya Pravik…. They went up the ladder … and I never saw them again.
Anatoli Zakharov, a firefighter stationed at Chernobyl since 1980, offered this account: "I remember joking to the others, There must be an incredible amount of radiation here. We’ll be lucky if we’re all still alive in the morning.” Twenty years after the disaster, he said the firefighters from the Fire Station No. 2 were aware of the risks. "Of course we knew! If we’d followed regulations, we would never have gone near the reactor. But it was a moral obligation – our duty. We were like kamikaze."
01:56 – Major Telyatnikov takes command of fire fighting units
04:00 – Further fire fighting units arrive from Chernobyl, Polesskoe and Kiev
06:35 – 37 fire brigades, with a total of 186 fire fighters, have by now been called in. All fires extinguished with the exception of the fire contained inside Reactor 4
01:26:03 – Fire alarm activated.
“Call everybody, everybody” – Firefighters alerted of fire at Reactor’s 3 and 4.
1:28 (approx) – Firefighters led by Vladimir Pravik leave the reactor's fire station.
01:35 (approx) – Fire attack initiated on roof of turbine hall. Arrival of firefighters from Pripyat city fire station, led by Viktor Kibenok.
Grigorii Khmel, a fire engine driver, said: "We arrived there at 10 or 15 minutes to two in the morning… We saw graphite scattered about. Misha asked: Is that graphite? I kicked it away. But one of the fighters on the other truck picked it up. It’s hot, he said. The pieces of graphite were of different sizes, some big, some small, enough to pick them up … We didn’t know much about radiation. Even those who worked there had no idea. There was no water left in the trucks. Misha filled a cistern and we aimed the water at the top. Then those boys who died went up to the roof – Vashchik, Kolya and others, and Volodya Pravik…. They went up the ladder … and I never saw them again.
Anatoli Zakharov, a firefighter stationed at Chernobyl since 1980, offered this account: "I remember joking to the others, There must be an incredible amount of radiation here. We’ll be lucky if we’re all still alive in the morning.” Twenty years after the disaster, he said the firefighters from the Fire Station No. 2 were aware of the risks. "Of course we knew! If we’d followed regulations, we would never have gone near the reactor. But it was a moral obligation – our duty. We were like kamikaze."
01:56 – Major Telyatnikov takes command of fire fighting units
04:00 – Further fire fighting units arrive from Chernobyl, Polesskoe and Kiev
06:35 – 37 fire brigades, with a total of 186 fire fighters, have by now been called in. All fires extinguished with the exception of the fire contained inside Reactor 4
DISPATCH EXCERPTS
Hello, is this Military Fire Fighting Department 2?
Yes!
What's burning over there?
There was an explosion at ... the main building!
3rd, 4th ... between the 3rd and 4th block!
Are there people there?
Yes!
Wake up our compound!
Getting them! Got the boss out of bed!
Well get everyone, everyone, the whole officer compound,
get the officers up!
Leonid Alekseevich?
Yes.
Hello, Pripyat, 3rd and 4th block,
the roof is on fire as a result of an accident, of an explosion.
... Come on!
So they already confirmed it?
Didn't confirm it. They had an accident there.
It's the Pripyat dispatcher that said so.
Fire brigade/security team.
Hello, Ivankov?
Yes-yes.
So you're going to be going to Pripyat...
Hello!
Yes-yes, I can hear you.
Set out for the nuclear power plant,
the 3rd and 4th block there, the roof's on fire!
Fire brigade/security team.
Hello, Polesskoye?
Yes-yes.
So, you, then, you're going to be going to the nuclear power plant,
the roof of the 3rd and 4th block there is on fire!
Yes!
What's burning over there?
There was an explosion at ... the main building!
3rd, 4th ... between the 3rd and 4th block!
Are there people there?
Yes!
Wake up our compound!
Getting them! Got the boss out of bed!
Well get everyone, everyone, the whole officer compound,
get the officers up!
Leonid Alekseevich?
Yes.
Hello, Pripyat, 3rd and 4th block,
the roof is on fire as a result of an accident, of an explosion.
... Come on!
So they already confirmed it?
Didn't confirm it. They had an accident there.
It's the Pripyat dispatcher that said so.
Fire brigade/security team.
Hello, Ivankov?
Yes-yes.
So you're going to be going to Pripyat...
Hello!
Yes-yes, I can hear you.
Set out for the nuclear power plant,
the 3rd and 4th block there, the roof's on fire!
Fire brigade/security team.
Hello, Polesskoye?
Yes-yes.
So, you, then, you're going to be going to the nuclear power plant,
the roof of the 3rd and 4th block there is on fire!