Most victims in gargantuan fire in southeastern region are elderly residents, according to authorities
With the number of confirmed deaths from the wildfires in the Gyeongsang provinces reaching 24 as of Wednesday afternoon, the bodies of many of the victims were found on the road or in their homes.
Among them are the chief of the village of Samui-ri and his family, who were found inside a car that was headed in the direction of the burning village, not away from it.
The village chief and his wife at some time Tuesday afternoon went to get his brother-in-law's wife living in the nearby village of Hwamae-ri, which was also engulfed in the large-scale wildfire currently ravaging across the Gyeongsang regions. The three people then headed back toward Samui-ri, in the opposite direction from Seokbo Elementary School, which was designated an evacuation spot for the area.
All three people were found dead at around 8 p.m. on the side of the road near the village, nearby their car that had been completely destroyed in the fire.
It is unclear why the village chief and his family headed away from safety. An official from the Seokbo-myeon Office -- the township in Yeongyang-gun that Samui-ri is a part of -- told local media outlets that the deceased had been returning to evacuate the rest of the village.
Both Samui-ri and Hwamae-ri lost communication at around 6 p.m. The chief of Hwamae-ri instructed villagers to evacuate to Seokbo Elementary by calling each villager and leaving them a voicemail.
Several elderly residents die during evacuation
Most victims of the fire, including Samui-ri's village chief, were in their 60s or older, according to the Korea Forest Service's briefing on Wednesday. Officials said the victims had been unable to get to safe spots due to the rapidly-spreading fire, or because of traffic accidents that occurred while evacuating.
In the village of Maejeong-ri in Yeongdeok-gun, a car that was carrying people from a nursing home exploded, killing three patients in their 80s. It is believed that the blaze had caught up to the vehicle and led to the explosion.
A couple in their 80s was found dead on the slopes near their home in Maejeong-ri, thought to have been trapped by flames while evacuating.
Several others were found dead inside their homes, including a woman in her 60s in Hwamae-ri.
In the weekend, the fire had claimed the lives of four government officials deployed to contain the flames, funerals for whom were conducted on Tuesday.
Samui-ri's village chief and his family were among the six people from Yangyang-gun who have died in the fires across the southeastern region, which have left at least 24 dead and one missing as of Wednesday morning, according to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters briefing. Fourteen people of North Gyeongsang Province have perished while four from South Gyeongsang Province have lost their lives.
The authorities are still struggling to contain the fires in six regions across the Gyeongsang Provinces, which affected at least 17,534 hectares of forest since it began with the March 14 fire in Sinwon-ri, Unmun-myeon, Cheongdo-gun, North Gyeongsang Province.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
