A Second Explosion
A few seconds later, a second explosion which was even greater than the first blew the building apart, spewing burning graphite and other parts of the reactor around the plan. This started intense fires around the power plant.
Igor Kostin photographs the remains of reactor number 4 from the roof of the third reactor. (Photo by Igor Kostin/Sygma via Getty Images)
The explosions ending up taking the lives of two plant workers, followed by several workers who died within hours of the accident. Over the next few days, emergency crews tried desperately to suppress the fires and radiation leaks.
But the death toll was climbing as the workers were succumbing to acute radiation sickness…