Back in 2015, there was a forest fire near the Chernobyl reactor. During the fire, no noticable increase in radiation was detected. Fires are not new to the closed off area around the now defunct reactor, and radiation monitoring has been conducted in the past with no unusual spikes.

So why is this time different?

Forest fire rages near Chernobyl nuclear site

Oleksandr Savochenko

AFP

April 28, 2015, 4:52 PM PDT

…

They said the fire started shortly after noon (around 0915 GMT).

• Radiation level unchanged -

Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk visited the area on Tuesday afternoon and met with emergency workers.

"The situation is under control," he told reporters at an air base where firefighting craft were taking off from.

"Our emergency services are actively working to stop the fire spreading."

A state nuclear inspection official told AFP that "the level of radiation at the Chernobyl plant has not changed"…

https://news.yahoo.com/forest-fire-near-ukraine-chernobyl-nuclear-officials-171649579.html

Forest fire near Chernobyl boosts radiation level

Associated Press

April 5, 2020, 5:20 AM PDT

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — A forest fire is burning in the evacuated area around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and is causing elevated radiation levels, authorities said Sunday.

The blaze has spread to about 100 hectares (250 acres), said Yehor Firsov, head of Ukraine’s state ecological inspection service.

The emergency services ministry said 130 firefighters and two planes were laboring to put out the fire. It said radiation levels had increased at the fire’s center.

The blaze is within the 2,600-square-kilometer (1,000-square-mile) Chernobyl Exclusion Zone established after the 1986 disaster at the plant that sent a cloud of radioactive fallout over much of Europe. The zone is largely unpopulated, although about 200 people have remained there despite orders to leave.

https://news.yahoo.com/forest-fire-near-chernobyl-boosts-122041746.html