Vasily Ignatenko

Vasily Ivanovich Ignatenko was a Soviet firefighter and first responder to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster. Ignatenko was raised on a collective farm near Gomel in the Belorussian SSR, and worked for a time as an electrician. He became a firefighter in 1980 as part of his service in the Soviet Military, and was employed as a paramilitary firefighter afterwards. On April 26th, 1986, Ignatenko's fire brigade was involved in mitigating the immediate aftermath of the Chernobyl Disaster, fighting the fires that were caused by the initial explosion. In the process, Ignatenko received a high dose of radiation and died in a Moscow radiological hospital eighteen days later.