Andong: Wildfires, which raged in South Korea, doubled in size Thursday from a day earlier when the authorities called the burning country’s worst natural fire disaster with at least 28 people killed and historic temples burned.
More than 38,000 ha (93,900 Acres) has been charred or burned in the largest of the fires that began in central Uisisong County, making it the largest single forest fire in South Korea’s history. The previous record was 24,000 ha (59,000 Acres) in a fire in March 2000.
“We are nationally in a critical situation with several losses due to the unprecedented rapid spread of forest fires,” acting president he Duck-Soo told a government’s response meeting.
The military has released stocks of aviation fuel to help keep firefighting helicopters flying to punching flames across mountainous regions of the southeastern part of the country where fires have been burning now for almost a week.
More than 120 helicopters have been deployed in three regions fighting the stains, the Security Ministry says. South Korea depends on helicopters to fight forest fires due to its mountainous terrain. A helicopter pilot died Wednesday after crashing while trying to tackle a flame.
The fires that originate from Uisisong have moved quickly to the east, spread almost to the coast, carried by Gusty winds and with dry conditions aggravated the situation.
The Uisisong Silde began to spread quickly on Wednesday and reached the coastal country of Yeongdek about 50 km (30 miles) away in just 12 hours, said Won Myung-Soo, director of satellite images for National Forestry Service.
Thursday night it rained briefly in some parts of the affected area. Defeating about a millimeter was too little to extinguish the main fire, but will help contain it, officials said.
About the same amount of rain is expected for some areas on Friday.
Experts have said that the Uisisong fire showed extremely unusual spread with regard to its scale and speed, and that climate change is expected to make fires more frequently and deadly globally.
Higher temperatures amplified by man-made climate change contributed to the existing seasonal dry conditions, “transforming dry landscapes into dangerous fire fuel” in the region, the Climate Central Group, an independent body consisting of researchers and researchers, said in a report.
Wildfires have cut a trace of destruction through an area equivalent to about half of Singapore, ravaging everything on their way, including historic temples and homes in the mountainous woodlands of North Gyeongsang Province.
Teams of firefighters are in standby to protect UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites in Hahoe Village and Byeongsan Confucian Academy in the city of Andong, if a blowing jumps the flow flowing around them.
The picturesque folk town has traditional Korean houses, many with thatched roofs, while the Confucian Academy goes back more than 450 years.
Fires have already hurt other historic places hard, including much of the Gounsa Temple in Uisisong, which was built in 681.
“Buildings and remains of what Buddhist monks have left 1,300 years, are now everyone gone,” Deungwoon said, the head of the Gounsa Temple.
