Chernobyl (2019) - Fire brigade at Chernobyl | Episode 1 

Those poor guys had no idea what they were getting into.

The equivalent of holding 4 million X rays in your hand

the fact that this really happened make this scene 10000x harder to watch.

You can already see the effects of the radiation, it’s very subtle when you see the firefighters they are rushing in their movements are fast, then the next shot their movements have become slower, lethargic, they have that radiation tan...poor souls never stood a chance.

The fact that he just picked up a piece of graphite from the reactor is terrifying to watch.

As a former fireman this really scares the crap out of me they had no idea they were literally standing inside of a nuclear reactor Core

Before watching Chernobyl: Huh, that's a weird looking rock After watching Chernobyl: *PANICKED SCREAMING*

“Do you taste metal” Poor guys

This is more horrifying than any horror movie could ever be

firefighters who arrived at the scene of the explosion and started combating the fire Vladimir Pravik - Died May 11, 1986 Victor Kibenok - Died May 11, 1986 Leonid Telyatnikov - Lived longest among these firemen, which is a miracle in itself. Died in 2005 of Chernobyl-related cancer. Vasiliy Ignatenko - Died May 13, 1986. In 2006 posthumously awarded the title Hero of Ukraine. Nikolay Vaschuk - Was instrumental in preventing fire from reaching reactor number 3. Died with the rest of his crew on the same day. Hero of Ukraine. Nikolay Titenok - Died May 16, 1986. Hero of Ukraine Leonid Shavrey - Miraculous recovery in the facility in Kyiv. Had bone marrow partially replaced which help the organism and DNA to fight off radiation exposure and sickness. Ivan Shavrey - The younger brother of Leonid. Also survived by miraculous treatment in Kyiv. Again, partial replacement of bone marrow. Petro Shavrey - The oldest brother. Also survived. Alexander Lelechenko - Electrician technician of Chernobyl NPP. Was responsible for preventing an additional hydrоgen explosion. Received lethal dose of radiation and died on May 7, 1986. Hero of Ukraine. Valery Khodemchuk - Pump room engineer. Died immediately with the reactor explosion. His body is forever entombed under reactor number 4.

Watches Chernobyl once: You know I’m something of a Nuclear Physicist myself

Never seen so much death with no actually death on screen💀

He held the piece of graphite for 13 seconds

If there was ever one day to call in sick...

The first time you watch you know that they are in danger, but it isn't until later that you realize the fire fighters were dead the second they got out of the trucks

Re-watching this scene after being a few episodes in and watching him pick up that piece of graphite like it’s nothing makes my skin crawl!! Poor guys.

I feel very bad for them, these innocent guys risk their lives just to protect the city, without knowing the consequences

I love the pulsating "vroom" sounds beginning at 3:32 They captured the sheer power of radiation perfectly. Like a giant monster lurking within the reactor. The audio was eerily fantastic. 💯

Several things that make this scene more horrifying: - They're walking to an OPEN RADIOACTIVE CORE - One of them _picked up a radioactive graphite piece_ - "Do you taste metal?" - Notice how the water _evaporates_ .

These firemen died the most horrible death pain and they did not expected what they were in a dangerous nuclear catastrophe. Rest in Peace to all the firemen who were the first responders to that tragedy. These men were brave, heroic, and they sacrificed their lives to save the world from the deadly radioation poisoning.

“Do you taste metal” is the most horrifying line I’ve ever heard.

1:24 "don't fuck around with it" wise words.

I wish they included the scene where the commander (Leonid Telyatnikov) went and demanded answers about what was happening to his men

I was a firefighter for 10 years. I cant tell you how many times someone on the engine company (including myself) would just casually pick up a curious something or another and ask “hey guys…what the fuck is this?” I couldn't help but laugh a little because thats just what firemen do. Our Captain would literally say “I dont know, stop fucking with it and get back to work” Despite the small laugh this really was a poignant scene for me to watch. I do habe coworkers that would get diagnosed with cancer It did make me tear up a little. Tough stuff.

This music when he approached up to the circulating pumps...greeting death

True Heroes. Nothing more, and certainly, nothing less to be said.

There should be a yearly memorial ceremony every year in Europe in honour of all these brave men!! :( - We owe them so much!

Seeing Vasili basically disintegrate later in the show makes this scene horrific.

Their clothes are still in the basement of Pripyat hospital. Just as they were tossed there on 4-26-86. The Firefighters equipment, most notably their boots: are still dangerously radioactive to this day. And they will remain that way for another 10,000 years. And it's only been 33 years since the disaster. Let that sink in.

You can see the ionized air glow through the fire over the reactor at 4:20... terrifying

Can we take a moment to appreciate at how well made the effects/stage is as well? It feels like you're actually there, even from the safety of your own home

He was thinking about his wife , he wanted to protect her

Anatoli Zakhraov: a fireman stationed in Chernobyl since 1980, offers a different description in 2008: "I remember joking to the others, 'There must be an incredible amount of radiation here. We'll be lucky if we're all still alive in the morning.'"[63] He also stated: "Of course we knew! If we'd followed regulations, we would never have gone near the reactor. But it was a moral obligation-our duty. We were like kamikaze" The explosion set bitumen on fire which was used in the roof construction against safety regulations, resulting in 5 separate blazes burning over Reactor 3, which threatened the cooling system for that reactor. The supervisor of the night shift wanted to shut it down, but was ordered by Fomin to keep it operating, and gave the crew respirators and potassium iodide pills. At 0500, he made the decision on his own to shut down Reactor 3 and only kept a small crew in charge of emergency cooling operations.

These poor men received a lethal dose of radiation within 48 seconds of stepping out of the truck. Mind blowing.

My father was a Chernobyl first responder. His name was Nikolai borchokokh he was a firefighter in the military fire and rescue unit in Kiev region. He arrived at the plant 20 mins after the explosion. When he got off the truck, he saw a black shiny material. He kicked it with his boot to get a better look. As the hours passed, he began to vomit uncontrollably. He said that it got so hot that he had to take off his equipment. After another hour he was so sick that he had diarrhoea that poured out of him. He was so sick that he had to get carried off to the ambulance. Once he got to the Pripyat hospital, he had to wait for hours before he could see a doctor or a nurse. When he was in the lobby he and the others got handed a anti nausea pill. Once he got seen, he was airlifted to hospital number 6 in Moscow. When we went to see him we were denied access many times. Once we saw him he looked fine. He told me this story. Then he died 3 weeks later. RIP father. God bless

This part of the show, literally was one of the scariest things I've ever watched

Am I seeing things or was Vasily's face turning more red as he got closer to the roof?

Whoever was responsible for calling in the fire brigade deserved to be hanged for this if they *actually* knew that the core exploded and were in denial about it

That poor bastard who unknowingly picks up the graphite and within minutes, starts screaming like his arm is being eaten alive-that shit always manages to horrify me.

That column of trucks marching toward the reactor is a convoy of men heading to their deaths.

This is absolutely scary 0:06 The fire brigade had no idea what they were heading towards

In December 1983, when Ignalina Unit 1 came online, a design flaw of the RBMK was noticed for the first time. When the graphite-moderated tips on its control rods were entered into the reactor, they immediately caused a power excursion. Unit 1's control rods did not get stuck; they reached the bottom of the reactor, and the boron in the control rods stopped the nuclear reaction. Other nuclear organizations and RBMK plants were informed of the problem, but it was not addressed until after a similar power surge partly caused the 1986 Chernobyl Disaster. The subsequent modifications were tested at Ignalina during 1987 and 1988. - Wiki This show was filmed at Ignalina.

4:04 that scene breaks my heart. When he stops for a second and lyudmila looks out the window

1:17 PUT IT DOWN NOOOOOW!!!!!

The firefighters, their clothes, their equipment, hoses, helmets, fire trucks, gloves and whatever they could grab. They were all sponges, soaking up all the radiation from the air into themselves. 😨

the fact that he picked up a piece of the reactor core is scary

Can’t believe this masterpiece of a show is already almost 4 years old. Time flys man (but not for those firefighters)

That moment at 1:12 when he picked up the chunk of graphite is more terrifying than any horror movie ever could be.

"Do you taste metal ?" I swear if I'm gonna hear these words ever in my life i will shit my pants

"Don't fuck around with it." Wise words to live by.

It's terrifying when you see them turn red from the radiation.

This breaks my heart to no end because these me were brave but they had no clue what just happened and what they were dealing with. While I have the highest respect for the men who volunteered and it hurts to know many died these men went in not knowing the horror that awaited them, going in unprepared and taking the full hit of the radiation honestly just heart wrenching to watch all the time.

I love the breathy train whistle in the score that comes with scenes of high radiation. The tone is unnaturally consistent and comes from everywhere, like you can hear the billions of particles slicing up the air at the speed of light.

2:25 he understood that this place already killed him at that moment, he was afraid of it you can see, very good acting btw.

00:10 you can se the radiation ionizing the air...

Some people knew what they were going into, but that’s what makes them even braver and I salute everyone for their act of courage and bravery to save millions and millions of lives.

That firefighter picking up a piece of graphite and asking "whats this?" *Death*

They destroyed a nuclear power plant to shoot the film

I absolutely loved this show. Severe radiation like that being totally invisible is scarier than any monster on earth.

I remember watching a documentary 8 years ago or something that said at the time of it's making the fire trucks from that night were still dangerously radioactive.

2:50 I believe this is a short screen time for lieutenant Vladimir Pravik, the fireman chief of Chernobyl NPP who got 600 roentgens just like the rest of his "Pravik's guard".

I'm told that this is equivalent of a chest X-Ray.

The crackling you hear at the end as he get closer to reactor is master class sound design, to people familiar with the sound geiger counter make, the crackling sound exactly like it. Were i think it really hits the mark is that it manages to convey the "sound" of radiation to people who know how geiger counter sound but also to people that never heard that sound ever

I'm straight up crying watching this scene. These men are being mutilated at the atomic level and don't realize it.

As a firefighter whose department is within the immediate danger zone of a reactor, this scares the shit out of me. I can't even imagine what it would be like to be slowly burning to death like that, and not knowing what's causing it.

The firefighter scenes hit super close to home. Growing up my father was a volunteer fire fighter in the local county which sits in the shadow of a nuclear power plant. He had to get special training in case he ever got the call to fire at the plant. These days its super scary to think about. On top of that a few years ago I started college at the local campus nearby on the lake. The student handbook literally had this whole section in it about evacuation protocols for the dorms and student housing and shit if anything happened the instructions are wors for word (get this). "Only pack/take the essentials and prepared to be gone for up to a minimum of three days. Buses will come and transport you to a safe location." It wasnt until this show came out that I realized it was literally an exact copy of the soviet evscuation plan for Pripyat.

There was no way they could have known that morning That they awoke upon a fateful day The killer wind came down without a warning and no one had the chance to get away The firemen were brave they fought with honor But the blaze was more than it appeared to be And one by one they fell beside their comrades The victims of a foe they could not see Mama where are you - Papa where did you go And where are all the children who used to play here Only heaven knows What they saw defied all explanation Someone said the trees were glowing red They say the light came from the radiation But maybe it’s the spirits of the dead

2:18 is a very powerful and impressive scene from a filmmaker point of view.

The power of 4 million chest X rays, in the palm of my hand

Past episodes become so much creepier in retrospect. The more you learn the better the first episodes get.

God bless and keep these men. This brings a tear to my eye. Much love from the USA 🇺🇸

The gate of death is front of their eyes

Me holding a shovel, and getting blisters after digging not even 20 cm.. I can't imagine how terrifying is to hold graphite less than 10 seconds..

"Do you taste metal?" "Yeah what is that" "I don't know"

The thing that’s truly terrifying in this scene is just that glowing beam shooting up in the sky.

It is weird. I remember well the day this happened. My family and I just barely arrived at Clark Air Force Base. As an engineer, I recall I was directed to set up several radiation Geiger tubes and Ion Chambers to closely keep in touch with our surroundings. I don’t think we measured much of anything out of the ordinary. Maybe a few milli-rem on a handful of days, but even so after a few spectral tests we never concluded anything was a result of the catastrophic events in Chernobyl. But I do remember wondering what kind of hell was going on in Russia.

This scene alone is why I will have everlasting respect for EMTs, firefighters, police, and first responders.

Radiation is invisible murderer...

They managed to capture the horror of the whole situation perfectly in this show. Like, this is legit eerie to watch.

This genuinely sends shivers down my spine, the way his hand looked and how they tasted metal plus their faces getting reddish by the minute and that guy just slumped over

Those poor bastards, they had no idea that they were walking into death. Could not see it, could not smell it, but they tasted it.

Those initial firefighters who showed up on the scene were as good as dead, but they did their job anyway. That’s the true definition of a hero.

Can't say enough about the score. It's hardly even music, per se, but it works so brilliantly.

"Do you taste metal?" You're done for, buddy...

The guys that worked that fire, so many of whom died terrible deaths, were true heroes.

Imagine being a firefighter and just going in there and not knowing what was going to happen

There is just no words to express the sheer horror of this. So sad that something like this came to pass.

I like that the soundtrack provides a subtle hum everytime the character gets exposed to a lethal dose of radiation. It's isn't there in real life.

Easily the scariest scene in the show. All these men had no idea they've been sentenced to an agonizing death.

Whatever the situation is.... You gotta respect the firemen and medical workers man.... These people sacrifice A LOT RIP to all the firemen and health personnel who worked and died during this calamity....

Scarier than any horror film you'll watch.

have to comment, back to watch this again. they had no idea what they were up against,,just brings me to tears..

1. Someone must put out these fires manually and fast 2. there is no existing protection against this level of radiation So, they did it. There was no way to save anyone, who entered the roof and reactor hall after explosion. Reactor hall was not showed in the series, propably too expensive. Firefighters who enter the roof continued inside collapsed building and they extioguished all fires.

1:38 I missed that before. He tries to movie his hand.

What terrifies me the most about all of this is the hidden, yet extraordinarily potent lethality of the threat. The single piece of graphite this poor bloke picked up didn't look remotely dangerous, and yet it killed the man in the worst way possible within a week. These firemen were up against an invisible, unstoppable, literal cloud of death and had no idea. It's a more horrifying thought than any fictional monster ever created.

"Do you taste metal?" Famous last words

The sirens of doom is obvious. Respect to people who laid down their lives.

They did their jobs to the last possible minute, without proper guidance or equipment, without these men and their efforts Chernobyl would have burnt brighter and longer

I don't know why but the background humming in this scene and in every other scene it's in makes the atmosphere 10x more disturbing.

When He Picked Up The Nuclear Reactor Core Part, I Told Him "Put It Down!"