KYIV. July 1 (Interfax) - Firefighters are continuing to deal with seats of a forest fire in the Chernobyl forest preserve and the situation is being kept under control, the Ukrainian State Emergency Situations Service reported on Wednesday morning.
"As of 7:00 a.m. on July 1, the situation was under control, and efforts to extinguish fire seats were continuing," it said.
The State Emergency Situations Service planned to use a helicopter to conduct aerial reconnaissance and evaluate the situation, it said.
A total of 27 pieces of machinery and 192 people have been engaged in fighting the fires in the Chernobyl preserve.
It was reported earlier that dry grass and bulrush caught fire within the floodway of the river Uzh near the communities of Kovshylivka and Poliske within the Chernobyl exclusion zone on the evening of June 29. The fire gradually spread over a territory of about 130 hectares.