Radiation readings soared 16 times higher than normal around the fire, which broke out in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

Maksym Stolyarevskyy was just three and half when the Chernobyl nuclear disaster hit but remembers vivid details of the days that followed.

Fire has engulfed a large sector of woods in the exclusion zone around the destroyed Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Ukrainian prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk says the fire is being brought under control.