24 Facts About Vasily Ignatenko

Vasily Ivanovich Ignatenko was a Soviet firefighter who was among the first responders to the Chernobyl disaster.

Vasily Ignatenko worked as an electrician before being conscripted into the Soviet Armed Forces in 1980, where he completed his two years of service as a military firefighter.

Vasily Ivanovich Ignatenko was born on 13 March 1961, on a collective farm in the Brahin District of the Gomel Region of the Byelorussian SSR.

Vasily Ignatenko was the third child of Tatiana Petrovna Ignatenko and Ivan Tarasovich Ignatenko.

Tatiana Vasily Ignatenko was a collective farm fieldworker, and Ivan Vasily Ignatenko a tractor, and later truck driver.

Vasily Ignatenko had an older sister, Lyudmilla, a younger brother, Nikolai, and a younger sister, Natasha.

Vasily Ignatenko had an older brother named Vitya, who had died from fever at age two or three, before Vasily Ignatenko was born.

Vasily Ignatenko was especially fond of sports, spending Sundays playing football and other games.

Vasily Ignatenko worked at the factory as an electrician for two years before he was called up into the Soviet Military.

Vasily Ignatenko was discharged at the end of his two year obligatory service on 25 August 1982, and returned home to Sperizh'e.

Vasily Ignatenko went to Chernigov, and for some reason he was not taken there.

Vasily Ignatenko soon moved into an apartment in the city fire station, beginning what would be a four-year term of service.

Vasily Ignatenko continued to be active as an applied-fire sport athlete, becoming known as the brigade's champion.

Vasily Ignatenko was initially hospitalised in Pripyat, but as the extent of the disaster began to be understood, all of the firefighters and plant personnel suffering from radiation exposure were evacuated by road to the Boryspil Airport near Kyiv, and from there to Moscow by air.

Vasily Ignatenko experienced hair loss and skin necrosis as his digestive and respiratory systems continued to degrade.

Vasily Ignatenko died at 11:20 in the morning on 13 May 1986.

Vasily Ignatenko was interred in two coffins, an inner one made of zinc, and an outer of wood.

Vasily Ignatenko was buried with full military honours alongside other Chernobyl victims in Mitinskoe Cemetery, Moscow.

Vasily Ignatenko remained very close to his family throughout his life, regularly taking the train from Pripyat to visit them on weekends.

Vasily Ignatenko helped around the house and with garden chores during these visits, even making furniture.

Vasily Ignatenko was from central Ukraine, and worked at the confectionery shop of a factory-kitchen enterprise in Pripyat.

Vasily and Lyudmilla Ignatenko had one child following a previous unsuccessful pregnancy: Natasha Ignatenko.

However Ukrainian medical responder Alla Shapiro, in a 2019 interview with Vanity Fair, said such beliefs were false, and that once Vasily Ignatenko was showered and out of his contaminated clothing, he would not have been dangerous to others, precluding this possibility.

Vasily Ignatenko was awarded the Soviet Order of the Red Banner posthumously in 1986.