The Korea Forest Service said firefighters were fighting at least five active fires nationwide as of Wednesday morning.
The Korea Forest Service said firefighters were fighting at least five active fires nationwide as of Wednesday morning.
By Kim Tong-Hyung
Updated March 26, 2025 — 2.49pmfirst published at 10.39am
Seoul: At least 18 people have died and another 19 have been injured as bushfires ravage South Korea’s southern regions amid dry weather and strong winds, destroying more than 200 structures and forcing 27,000 people to evacuate, government officials said on Wednesday.
Officials in Andong city and other south-eastern cities and towns ordered residents to evacuate on Tuesday as firefighters struggled to contain several blazes, which burnt more than 17,000 hectares of land and a 1300-year-old Buddhist temple.
Houses, factories and vehicles were among the structures destroyed.
In a televised address, acting President Han Duck-soo said the fires that began on Friday were causing worse damage than many other past fires.
“Damages are snowballing,” Han said. “There are concerns that we’ll have wildfire damages that we’ve never experienced, so we have to concentrate all our capabilities to put out the wildfires in the rest of this week.”
Han said crews were struggling to extinguish the fires because strong winds swept the areas overnight. He said about 4650 firefighters, soldiers and other personnel were working on Wednesday with the help of about 130 helicopters. He said some 5-10 millimetres of rain was expected on Thursday. Officials later said one of the helicopters had crashed killing its pilot.
Observers say these are the third-biggest fires in the country in terms of land burnt.
Officials in several south-eastern cities and towns had ordered residents to evacuate on Tuesday as firefighters struggled to contain multiple blazes. The largest fires were in Andong, the neighbouring counties of Uiseong and Sancheong, and the city of Ulsan, according to the Interior Ministry.
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Earlier on Tuesday, officials had said firefighters had extinguished most of the flames from the largest fires in those areas, but wind and dry conditions allowed the blazes to spread again.
The blaze in Uiseong destroyed nearly half of more than 30 structures at Gounsa, a temple complex originally built in the 7th century. Among the destroyed structures were two state-designated “treasures” – a pavilion-shaped structure built on a stream built in 1668 and a Joseon Dynasty structure built in 1904 to mark the longevity of a king.
A stone Buddha statue reportedly made in the 8th century, was evacuated to a safe place, according to government and Buddhist officials.
The Korea Forest Service said it had raised its fire warning to the highest “serious” level nationwide requiring local governments to assign more workers to emergency response, tighten entry restrictions for forests and parks, and recommend that military units withhold live-fire exercises.
The 18 dead include four firefighters and government workers killed in Sancheong on Saturday after being trapped by fast-moving flames, according to officials.
Government officials suspect human error caused several of the fires, possibly due to the use of fire to clear overgrown grass in family tombs or sparks from welding work.
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AP
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