South Korea suffered more than a dozen major wildfires over the weekend. The fires killed 24 people, forced 27,000 to evacuate, and burned more than 17,000 hectares of land.
Acting President Han Duck-soo said the fires continued to burn on Wednesday, causing “unprecedented damage.”
The weekend’s fires were second only to the massive blazes of April 2000 in their size and intensity, and some observers believe they will be judged even worse after all of the damage is tallied. At least 30 distinct fires were raging after the disaster began on Friday, and eight of them were still going strong on Wednesday.
The Korea Herald reported that the fires appear to have been started by “simple mistakes,” such a spark from a lighter held by an individual visiting an ancestral grave, a fire started by a brush cutter at a farm, sparks thrown by man repairing a fence with a welding kit, burning trash discarded along a freeway, and “a small fire that a graveyard keeper used to burn a bag of chips.”
“The lack of humidity and high temperature in the region contributed to the wildfires becoming one of the worst disasters in the country’s history,” the Korea Herald observed.
President Han said the fires were “developing in a way that is exceeding both existing prediction models and earlier expectations.”
“Throughout the night, chaos continued as power and communication lines were cut in several areas and roads were blocked,” he said.
People caught in the path of the blazes said high winds were causing the fire to spread with astonishing speed. Many of the fatalities are reportedly older people who could not evacuate quickly enough.
“The fire came from the mountain and fell on my house,” one elderly survivor said, explaining that he was able to escape because he fled without pausing to gather any of his belongings.
Two Buddhist temples were among the buildings destroyed by the fires, one of them over 1,300 years old. Both of the temples had been designated historical “treasures” by the South Korean government. Fortunately, some of the cultural artifacts stored on the temple sites were rescued.
“I went there this morning and found they’ve been reduced to heaps of ashes. I feel really empty. Life is transient,” said one of the senior monks who cared for the temples.
On Wednesday, one of the helicopters deployed to control the fires crashed in the mountains of Uiseong, about 110 miles from Seoul, killing its pilot. The Korea Forest Service grounded all firefighting helicopters after the crash, but they resumed operation late Wednesday afternoon, with pilots taking the risky missions on a voluntary basis. Thousands of firefighters and military personnel are also working to control the fires on the ground.
A truck driver who observed the mountains of Uiseong burning said “it was like the apocalypse.” Firefighters were dismayed to learn the Korea Meteorological Association expects no significant rainfall in the area on Wednesday or Thursday.
“We are confronting the worst wildfires in our history using all available personnel and equipment, but the situation is not looking good,” Han said at an emergency meeting on Wednesday.
“All efforts must be concentrated on wildfire containment for the remaining days of the week. If additional wildfires occur, there may be shortages of resources for firefighting efforts. Therefore, we must also focus our efforts on wildfire prevention,” he said.
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