Viktor Kibenok

Viktor Nikolaevich Kibenok (Віктор Миколайович Кібенок, Виктор Николаевич Кибенок; 17 February 1963 11 May 1986) was a Chernobyl firefighter who was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union after he died of radiation sickness.

Life
Kibenok was born into a family of firefighters, his father and his grandfather were both firemen. He would sometimes go with his father to emergencies and watch. This is presumably when he found his love for firefighting. He graduated from Cherkasy Fire And Technical School in August 1984 and was sent to work in Pripyat. He was a Lieutenant and the Chief Guard at Pripyat Fire Station (СВПЧ-6).

Kibenok is described as being strong-willed, kind by-nature, a caring man. He also had a love for Motorsports and owned a motorcycle. In his free time he would modify and work on his motorcycle and loved driving it.

He was told of his wife's pregnancy just two days before the accident - the child would later die in labour.

Chernobyl Disaster
At the time of the explosion, Kibenok's shift were resting in the fire station. At 1:25 AM, around two minutes after the explosion, an alarm came through from the dispatcher of the nuclear plant's fire station. The dispatcher told СВПЧ-6's radiotelephonist Mikhail Elubayev that there had been an explosion at the power plant, and that the roof of the turbine hall had caught fire. They acted quickly, and by 1:27 AM, three trucks had left the station: two tanker trucks based on the Ural-375 and ZIL-130 platforms respectively, and a mechanical ladder truck, based on the newer ZIL-131 chassis.

Kibenok's detachment arrived on the south side of the plant at 1:35 AM, along the turbine hall. Seeing that the turbine hall was already being extinguished by ВПЧ-2, he raised Lieutenant Vladimir Pravik over the radio, whom was his counterpart from the nuclear plant's fire station, he asked Pravik what the situation was, Pravik told him to move his trucks to the north side, as his men were already dealing with the roof of the turbine hall. He informed Kibenok that the fire was at risk of spreading to the roof of the third reactor, which at this point was still operating, and it was imperative that this didn't happen. By 1:38 AM, Kibenok had relocated his vehicles to the north side of the reactor building and convened with Pravik about what to do next. Pravik tells Kibenok that he needs to take a squad of his men up to the roof of the ventilation block to prevent the fire from spreading to the roof of reactor 3. However, being a city firefighter, Kibenok didn't know the route to the roof. Pravik offers to guide his squad instead. The mechanical ladder truck is deployed underneath the VRSO building, in order to access its roof. Kibenok takes two of his men to the roof of the VRSO block and begins to extinguish the small fires there.

By 1:50 AM, Pravik and his squad begin climbing to the roof of the ventilation block, passing by Kibenok on their way. Kibenok continues to work on the VRSO roof. At 2:05 AM, after Pravik reaches the roof of the ventilation block, he reports over the radio: "Explosion in the reactor compartment of the fourth block." After hearing this, Kibenok decides to climb to the roof of the ventilation block as well, possibly out of curiosity, a decision which would ultimately lead to his death.

Sometime around 2:14 AM Kibenok reaches the roof of the ventilation block, he and Pravik likely talk about what could have happened. The bitumen covering on the roof had begun to melt, and it stuck to their boots making it hard to move, they were also breathing in toxic & radioactive smoke from the burning bitumen, as well as smoke and particles from the burning reactor itself. After being on the roof for only around five minutes, Kibenok had received an exceeding lethal dose of radiation estimated to be anywhere from 900-1100 REM.

At 2:20 AM, Praviks squad (Vasily Ignatenko, Nikolai Vashchuk, Nikolai Titenok and Vladimir Tishura) begin to suffer from the early onset symptoms of acute radiation sickness, with Titenok and Tishura collapsing on the roof, being too weakened to stand. Ignatenko and Kibenok assist both of the men down from the roof, to the top of the fire escape staircase, where they are met by firemen sent as reinforcements. They are assisted to the ground, and are helped out of their uniforms by their comrades on the ground. Shortly after, at around 2:30 AM, Kibenok and Pravik, along with the rest of the squad climb into the Ural-375 tanker, and a ZIL-130 tanker from Pravik's unit. They are driven a short distance to ABK-1 (1st administration building), where ambulances are arriving, in order to seek medical attention. Kibenok meets Belokon (an ambulance doctor) and Belokon asks him if there are any burn cases, Kibenok says no, but that the situation is still unclear and that he needs to call his superiors. He is then taken to the Pripyat hospital.

Hospitalization and death
Kibenok stayed in Sanitary Unit No.126 (the Pripyat Hospital) for one day before the true scale of the accident was realized. He was then transported by air to Moscow Hospital No.6, which specialised in radiology and radiation burns. He had received bitumen burns on the inside of his mouth and his lungs were damaged by inhaling burning bitumen. Due to these internal burns, Kibenok couldn't eat and it was extremely painful for him to speak. By May 9th, Kibenok could no longer stand. He died a few days later on May 11th a few hours after his friend and colleague Vladimir Pravik. Throughout his hospitalization, he remained positive - even after multiple failed skin grafts and a failed bone-marrow transplant. His funeral was held on May 13th.

Kibenok aged just 23. He is buried alongside his comrades in Mitinskoe Cemetery in Moscow.

Legacy
After his death, Kibenok left behind a wife, and a child. Although the child would later be stillborn. He posthumously received the Hero of The Soviet Union award on September 25th 1986. He has a street named after him in his home city of Ivankov. Kibenok also has numerous monuments, all over the Kiev region, including one at the Cherkasy Fire and Technical School, where he trained to become an officer.