In Magadan, Emergency Situations Ministry employees honored the memory of victims of radiation disasters

26 April. A meeting was held at fire and rescue unit No. 20 dedicated to the memory of employees of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations who died in the line of duty and victims of radiation accidents and disasters. On this day, the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is remembered, and first of all those who took part in the liquidation of the disaster 38 years ago, the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation for the Magadan Region told MagadanMedia.

In April 1986, the fourth power unit at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. About 520 dangerous radionuclides were released into the atmosphere. The scale of the tragedy could have become immeasurably greater if not for the courage and dedication of the participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, who arrived from all over the country and entered into the “battle” with radiation. For several years, during an emergency situation, liquidators worked at the disaster site, fulfilling their duty to protect fellow citizens from the harmful effects of radiation.

This year, two memorable dates fall on one day. Since 2012, on the last Friday of April, the Day of Remembrance of employees of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations who died in the line of duty has been celebrated. On December 19, 1947, 2 steamships, the General Vatutin and the Vyborg, exploded in Nagaev Bay of the Magadan Region, carrying more than 3,000 tons of explosives. This disaster became the largest in the history of the Magadan region; many Magadan residents died that day, including four firefighters who fearlessly rushed to extinguish the ship standing on the roadstead: Nikolai Ivanov, Nikolai Batukhtin, Pyotr Korovin, Pavel Filimonov. In 1984, while fulfilling his professional duty, the life of Ivan Romanenko was cut short. Internal service major Ivan Kuzmich Romanenko was posthumously awarded the medal “For Courage in a Fire.” In 2003, while eliminating a natural fire in the village of Srednekan in the Magadan Region, Vladimir Vashchuk and Nikolai Dubinin died. The names of these people still ring in our memory today.

Courage, courage, dedication to the profession, readiness for self-sacrifice, and mutual assistance have always distinguished those who chose saving people as their life’s work. These heroes are remembered not only by their relatives, friends and colleagues, but also by those whose lives they saved at the cost of their own.

Joining their colleagues across Russia, employees of the Magadan rescue department honored the memory of the heroes with a minute of silence and laid flowers at the memorial monument.