The Firefighters Who Didn't Know

First responders arrived within minutes, with no idea they were walking into lethal radiation:

• In all, 28 emergency workers — firefighters and plant staff — received fatal doses, most dying within weeks
• They picked up pieces of graphite from the reactor core with bare hands, not knowing each was lethally radioactive
• Lieutenant Vasily Ignatenko told his wife he'd be home for breakfast. He died 14 days later
• Radiation near the reactor hit 15,000 roentgens per hour — a lethal dose in under a minute

These men are now buried in lead-lined coffins sealed with zinc, to contain the radiation their bodies still emit.