The first firefighter at Chernobyl, who climbed onto the roof of Unit 3 without being told of the radioactive danger
'Everything turned out okay. We will live until we're a hundred'... from a letter to his wife, written from his Moscow hospital bed as radiation destroyed his body.
Volodymyr Pravyk was a Soviet firefighter and lieutenant in the MVD who commanded the Third Watch of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant's Fire Brigade No. 2 (ВПЧ-2). When Reactor 4 exploded on 26 April 1986, his unit was first to respond: within two minutes Pravyk was on the scene, and at 01:56 he led a team onto the roof of Unit 3 to prevent the fire from spreading to the still-operational reactor, working in fields later estimated at over 6,000 roentgens per hour. He received the highest confirmed radiation dose of any Chernobyl victim, 1,520 REM (nearly triple a lethal dose), and died of acute radiation syndrome in Moscow on 11 May 1986, never having been told of the radioactive danger.
Career Timeline
- 1979–1982Graduated from Cherkasy Fire-Technical Academy
- 1982Commissioned as lieutenant in MVD Fire Service
- 1982–1986Commander of Third Watch, Militarized Fire Brigade No. 2 (ВПЧ-2), Chernobyl NPP
- 1986.4.26First responder to Chernobyl disaster; fought fires on Unit 3 roof
- 1986.5.11Died of acute radiation syndrome in Moscow