Winnipeg Free Press: Fukushima prompts Chornobyl flashback

A phone call woke up my family in Kyiv in the early hours of Saturday, April 26, 1986 -- 25 years ago today. As you know, such phone calls are never a good sign.The caller told my father, a major and a lecturer at the Police Academy of Ukraine, that an emergency alert was issued and all personnel must immediately get to the academy headquarters. At the headquarters, the commanding officer said there had been a big accident at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, approximately 80 kilometres from Kyiv. My father and all other personnel were ordered to go there and help evacuate people. They stayed in Chornobyl for three days and three nights with no protection, not even a mask. That first day, while my father was away and we were wondering what had happened, a relative called. She was the type to know all the latest gossip in town. Read the story here