Stories of amazing rescues always grab us. But we found out about one recent animal rescue story with a unique twist— and it’s way stranger than a firefighter getting a cat out of a tree! For one thing, in takes place in Chernobyl, Ukraine.

In 1986, Chernobyl was the site of one of the worst nuclear accidents in history. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant’s reactor malfunctioned, causing fires and explosions that released vast amounts of deadly radiation.

The area surrounding Chernobyl was evacuated and closed off, creating the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ). A huge concrete and steel “sarcophagus” was placed over the entire reactor site to prevent further radiation leakage. To this day, access is blocked to most people. Amazingly, that hasn’t stopped a variety of animals from calling Chernobyl home.

When some of the few workers monitoring the reactor site noticed something strange on top of the sarcophagus, it turned out to be one of these animals— a dog, in fact! Just how the dog wound up on the roof of the site is a mystery, but the workers think it must have climbed a maintenance ladder.

Those workers weren’t about to leave the dog there! Three of them braved the bitterly cold Ukrainian winter conditions and the hazard of climbing up the sarcophagus — not to mention the danger of radiation — so that they could get the poor dog in a rescue sling and bring it down to safety.

Actually, it’s not unusual to see a stray dog in Chernobyl, even in the contaminated Exclusion Zone. In fact, National Geographic reports that there are at least hundreds of dogs roaming the area. They’re the descendants of pets left behind when the residents of Chernobyl had to evacuate in a hurry.

And it’s not only dogs, cats, and other household pets you’ll find in the CEZ. The area is teeming with wildlife: moose, deer, beavers, owls, bears, wolves, birds, horses, and more. The CEZ covers over 1600 square miles, so the ironic thing is that a site contaminated by a radioactive disaster is now one of the largest and most thriving wildlife preserves in Europe!

Why are there so many wild animals in a place that is so deadly humans are only able to get in by special permit, even 30 years later? Research published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment says that there’s no doubt that radiation has had some effect on the animals. It’s caused high rates of albinism in owls, for instance. Yet because there are basically no humans around to hunt the animals or compete with them for food or space, their numbers have jumped.

I don’t know about you, but I think it’s incredible that the wildlife is able to flourish in these strange circumstances. As for our brave Chernobyl crew, it seems like they were happy to risk their lives to save the dog. Life monitoring the reactor site apparently gets a little dull, so the workers were perfectly happy to adopt a new best friend!

Check out the video below for more on the story of this unusual rescue. For one thing, you won’t believe what happened 2 days after the dog was saved from the roof! What do you think of this amazing rescue story?