The average containment rate of all wildfires in North Gyeongsang Province rose to 94 percent Friday, officials said, as better visibility and cooler temperatures from overnight rain helped firefighters put out the main blazes in southeastern regions.
In the nation's worst wildfire disaster, a wave of forest fires has devastated the regions since last Friday, killing at least 28 people, injuring 37 and forcing some 38,000 people to flee, according to the government's disaster response agency.
As of noon Friday, an average of 94 percent of wildfires across five cities in North Gyeongsang Province had been brought under control, according to the Korea Forest Service.
Of the total 928-kilometer perimeter of the fires, 871 kilometers have been extinguished, with just 57 kilometers remaining, the KFS said.
North Gyeongsang Province Gov. Lee Cheol-woo told reporters that it is "possible" for firefighters to fully put out the main blazes in the province before the sun sets Friday.
About 48,000 hectares of woodland, roughly equivalent to some 80 percent of the size of Seoul, have been scorched, the agency said earlier in the day.
It is nearly 25,000 ha more than the 23,794 ha damaged by the east coast wildfires in 2000, which were the worst in the nation's history at the time.
"We plan to mobilize all available resources to extinguish the main flames by the end of the day," Lim Sang-seop, chief of the KFS, told reporters.
The improved visibility and cooler temperatures from the overnight rain have created "favorable" conditions to control the blaze, according to Lim.
"We will make every effort by deploying helicopters, personnel and other resources to contain the fire," he added.
In some signs of relief, rainfall overnight helped firefighters rein in fires and enable them to focus on extinguishing the main blazes in multiple locations.
Some 5,580 personnel, 86 firefighting helicopters and 569 fire trucks were deployed Friday to fully contain the wildfire in Uiseong and other regions in North Gyeongsang Province. (Yonhap)
