South Korea (TDI): South Korea’s southeastern region is burning with active wildfires at five different locations. Over the weekend, a dozen fires broke out across the southeast of the country, from which five are still active.
Thousands of firefighters are trying to control these fires which have so far claimed twenty four lives. More than twenty people are injured while around 27,000 people are displaced from their homes.
The fire started in the Sancheong county on Friday and from there it spread to the neighbouring Uiseong county, advancing further into Andong, Cheongsong, Yeongyang, and Yeongdeok counties.
One of the pilots of the firefighting helicopters has also lost his life while trying to contain the blaze. More than 17,000 hectares of forest area has been destroyed from these fires. Not just the forest cover, the fires have also burned dozens of structures including the monumental one thousand year old Gounsa temple in Uiseong.
South Korea’s forest fire experts and government officials have said that these fires surpassed all predictions and spread at an “unimaginable” pace.
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These wild fires are “rewriting the record books for the worst wildfires in our nation’s history,” said acting President Han Duck-soo.
The president also said that “we were desperately hoping for rain today or tomorrow to help extinguish the flames.”
To speed up the rescue and fire control measures, the country’s military has also sent 5,000 service members and 146 helicopters in addition to the large regular firefighting crew.
This year, like many other parts of the world, South Korea has also been experiencing drier than usual weather with less rains. The country has already faced 244 fires this year and while South Korea is generally more prone to wild fires, this year their number has increased 2.4 times.
Evacuation shelters have been set up at different locations since South Korea has a high old-age population. Among the twenty four people who have died in the fires, the number of old people is high.
Nuzhat Rana is an Associate Editor at The Diplomatic Insight.
