CHEONGSONG (AP) – Helicopters dumped water over a burning forest in South Korea on Thursday as fire crews struggled to contain the country’s worst-ever wildfires, which have killed 26 people, forced at least 37,000 others to flee their homes and destroyed more than 300 structures.
Multiple wildfires fuelled by strong winds and dry weather have been raging across South Korea’s south-eastern regions since last Friday. The government has mobilised thousands of personnel, dozens of helicopters and other equipment to extinguish the blazes, but gusty winds are hampering their efforts.
Rain was expected yesterday. But Korea Forest Service chief Lim Sang-seop said the amount – less than five millimetres is forecasted – likely won’t help much in extinguishing the wildfires.
The fatalities include a pilot whose helicopter crashed during efforts to contain a fire on Wednesday and four firefighters and other workers who died earlier after being trapped by fast-moving flames.
Authorities haven’t disclosed details of the civilian dead, except that they are mostly in their 60s or older who found it difficult to escape quickly or who even refused orders to evacuate.
They suspect human error caused several of the wildfires, including cases where people started fires while clearing overgrown grass from family tombs or with sparks during welding work.
Deputy head of the government’s disaster response centre Lee Han-kyung told a meeting yesterday that the wildfires have again disclosed “the reality of climate crisis that we have yet experienced,” according to Yonhap news agency.
Calls to his centre were unanswered.
Scientists say the warming atmosphere around the world is driving ever more extreme weather events, including wildfires, flooding, droughts, hurricanes and heat waves that are killing people and causing billions of dollars in damage every year.
The wildfires have burned 36,010 hectares of land, the disaster response centre said yesterday. Observers said that’s the worst figure of its kind in South Korea.
The report said the blazes have also injured 30 people, eight of them seriously, destroyed 325 buildings and structures and forced more than 37,180 people to evacuate.
As of yesterday morning, the centre said authorities were mobilising more than 9,000 people and about 120 helicopters to battle the wildfires.
In Cheongsong, one of the fire-hit areas, thick plumes of smoke were bellowing from Juwang Mountain yesterday morning.
Helicopters repeatedly hovered over the mountain, dropping water. The amount of smoke later appeared to have diminished.
The hardest-hit areas include Andong city and the neighbouring counties of Uiseong and Sancheong, and the city of Ulsan. The fires in the past week have destroyed houses, factories and some historic structures.
