Death toll rises to 24; acting president calls wildfire worst in South Korean history
Wildfires continued to rage across southeastern South Korea on Wednesday, as residents grappled with a rising death toll, unprecedented property damage, and the destruction of national treasures.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the wildfires claimed the lives of at least 24 people and injured 26 others, according to disaster authorities. The strong winds and dry weather fueled the wildfires to spread rapidly eastwards, sending flames into the country’s eastern counties and cities: Cheongsong-gun, Oksan-myeon, Jeomgok-myeon, Andong-si, Yeongdeok-gun and Yeongyang-gun. The fires were also sweeping through the northeastern region of North Gyeongsang Province, with rising hot air creating a phenomenon known as "will-o'-the-wisp," in which columns of heat ascend rapidly.
Despite continued firefighting efforts to contain the wildfires, a separate forest fire in Sancheong-gun and Hadong-gun has spread into the national park of Jirisan, one of three holy mountains revered by many South Koreans alongside Geumgangsan and Hallasan.
One of six helicopters dispatched to contain the spreading fire in Uiseong-gun has crashed, according to the Korea Forest Service. Though the fire authority conducted a rescue mission, the pilot, who was the only person on the helicopter, was found dead on Wednesday afternoon.
Acting President and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said in a national address earlier in the day that South Korea is confronting the worst wildfire in its history.
"We are confronting the worst wildfires in our history using all available personnel and equipment, but the situation is not looking good," he said, urging concentrated efforts to contain the fires.
“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,” Han said.
Authorities announced that the fires have caused a significant number of casualties among elderly rural residents, who struggled to evacuate quickly. Though the exact causes of the deaths are yet to be investigated, the police reportedly expect the fatalities to have resulted from suffocation due to the smoke emitted by the wildfires or attempts to flee from the rapidly spreading flames on Tuesday night.
The police said a woman in her 70s was found in the yard of her house in Andong-si. It is presumed that she died from asphyxiation due to smoke inhalation. Another woman in her 50s was found dead in Imha-myeon, a town located in the southern part of Andong-si.
In Cheongsong-gun, two elderly people in their 70s and 80s were found dead at their house. Authorities found another woman in her 60s who had burned to death on a road.
With the deadly wildfires forcing 27,079 residents to evacuate their homes, a total of 128 helicopters, 1,144 military personnel, 3,135 firefighters, 1,186 fire suppression specialists, and 4,652 public officials and others have been deployed for firefighting operations.
The largest number of evacuees is from Uiseong-gun and Andong-si, totaling 20,313, followed by 1,773 from Sancheong-gun and Hadong-gun in South Gyeongsang Province, 4,993 in Ulju-gun -- a district of western Ulsan. Among these residents, 1,073 have returned home, while 26,006 remain displaced, according to the authorities.
The wildfire destroyed 209 homes and public and private facilities in Uiseong-gun and Sancheong-gun.
South Korea’s correctional authorities previously considered relocating a total of 3,500 inmates from Andong Prison and Cheongsong Prison, which lie in the path of the Uiseong-gun wildfire. But the Ministry of Justice decided to transfer about 500 of its inmates from a major prison complex in North Gyeongsang Province, located in central Cheongsong-gun, on Tuesday night as the fast-moving flames threatened the area around the facility.
With the blazes in Uiseong-gun affecting 15,158 hectares of land as of Wednesday -- a size that is equivalent to one-fourth the area of Seoul -- the wildfires marked the third-biggest in the country’s history.
It followed the 2000 east coast wildfires and 2022 Uljin-Samcheok wildfires, which scorched 23,794 hectares and 16,302 hectares, respectively.
The Interior Ministry said a total of seven large- and medium-scale wildfires -- in Sancheong-gun, the city of Gimhae in South Gyeongsang Province, Uiseong-gun, Okcheon-gun in North Chungcheong Province and Ulju-gun – burned an estimated 17,534 hectares of woodland.
Gounsa, a Buddhist temple in Uiseong-gun dating back over 1,300 years to the Silla era (57 BC-AD 935), was completely incinerated. Fortunately, some 40 national treasures and cultural heritage items housed at the temple had been relocated outside the fire’s perimeter.
Uiseong-gun also removed cultural relics, books and paintings from its Buddhist temples, including Okryeonsa, transporting them to local museums outside North Gyeongsang Province as well.
Authorities reportedly announced that Cheongsong-gun was also affected by the wildfires, which damaged the Cheongseong Manselu pavilion -- a provincial cultural heritage property -- and the Historical House of Saddam, a designated national intangible cultural heritage.
According to the Korea Heritage Service, eight cultural heritage properties and items, including national monuments, treasures, scenic spots and heritage designated by individual cities and provinces, were damaged by the wildfires.
As the wildfires, fanned by strong winds, moved north to areas of Pungcheon-myeon in Andong, authorities reportedly made all-out efforts to protect two UNESCO World Heritage sites -- Andong Hahoe Folk Village and Byeongsanseowon Confucian Academy.
The Korea Expressway Corporation announced that the Cheongsong Service Area buildings and restrooms at the Jeomgok Temporary Service Area were destroyed by the wildfires. Surveillance cameras on the Seosan-Yeongdeok Expressway and Jungang Expressway were damaged, preventing them from transmitting footage.
sj_lee@heraldcorp.com
