Volodymyr Pravyk

Pravik was only twenty-three years old when the Chernobyl disaster occurred. He was a college graduate, engaged in creative endeavors such as photography, drawing, and poetry.[1] He was also a member of the Komsomol, the youth division of the Communist Party.[1]

Pravik was married to a kindergarten teacher, who had just given birth to their first child when he died.[1]

When the explosion happened, Pravik and his men were resting in the fire station. He heard the explosion and seconds later came an alarm. He was told that the roof was on fire. Pravik dispatched 4 firetrucks over to the power plant. Once Pravik reached Unit 3, he saw the burning ruins of Reactor 4 and sounded a stage 3 alert, meaning every available fire station in the Kiev region had to respond. He parked his trucks outside between Units 3&4 on the North side of the plant. He and another man, Sergeant Leonid Shavrey, ran inside the plant to conduct reconnaissance and find the source of the fire. After a while of running through empty corridors, Pravik found a telephone on the wall which was connected directly to Unit 4's control room. No one answered. He found 2 distressed plant workers who suggested that the turbine hall and the roof of Unit 3 had caught fire.

Pravik and Shavrey returned to their trucks, the men from Pripyat Fire Station had arrived, he spoke briefly with Lieutenant Kibenok. Pripyat brought their ZIL-131 AL30 (mechanical ladder-truck). It was deployed on the north side of the plant, and used to access the unit 3 fire escape stairs, which they used to climb to the roof of Unit 3. He went to Unit 3's roof with five other men, Viktor Kibenok, Vasily Ignatenko, Nikolai Titenok, Nikolai Vashchuck and Vladimir Tishura. He reached the top of Unit 3 and deployed his hoses. As this was happening, Pravik's men from the NPP fire station were extinguishing fires on the turbine hall roof.

During the explosion, the standpipes that supplied water had been blown off. So Kibenok had to radio in his Ural water tanker. Pravik twisted his hose but no water came out, just a dry hiss, Pravik then called down his radio "Give me more pressure!". After around 30 minutes on the roof, they all started to stumble and collapse, they were all vomiting. They started to make their way back down the fire escape. Men who stayed with the trucks ran to help.

Ambulances arrived, and took them away, Leonid Telyatnikov arrived 10 minutes prior and took over command. Pravik and the others spent a day in Hospital 126 in Pripyat, before they were transported by helicopter to Moscow Hospital No.6 which specialised in radiation accidents. He died on May 11th 1986 at the age of 23. It is estimated that Pravik got a 750 rad dose (855 roentgen, 7.5 Sv).

He was posthumously awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union, The Order of Lenin and the Ukrainian Star for Courage.

• Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously)
• The Order of Lenin (posthumously)
• Ukrainian Star For Courage (posthumously)

• Chernobyl liquidators