SEoul, South Korea – forest fires that were among the worst South Korea ravage the southern regions of the country, killing 18 people, destroying more than 200 structures and forcing 27,000 people to evacuate, officials announced on Wednesday.
Officials also said that a helicopter crashed during efforts to contain forest fires in the southeast city of Uiseong, one of the hardest areas affected by forest fires. The Korea Forest Service said that the rescue efforts were underway and that it was presumed that the plane had been operated by a pilot without crew members.
An old Buddhist temple, houses, factories and vehicles was one of the structures destroyed in forest fires that burned 43,330 acres and injured 19 people, said the government’s emergency intervention center.
In a television address, the acting president of South Korea, Han Duck-Soo, said that the forest fires that had started last Friday caused less and more damage than many other past forest fires.
“Damage is snowball,” said Han. “It is features that we have damages that we have never known, so we must concentrate all our capacities to extinguish forest fires in the rest of this week.”
Han said that the crews had trouble turning forest fires because strong winds swept the areas overnight. Han said that around 4,650 firefighters, soldiers and other staff were working on Wednesday to extinguish forest fires with around 130 helicopters. He said that “a small quantity” of 5 to 10 millimeters of rain was expected on Thursday.
Observers say that the forest fires are in progress are the third largest in South Korea in terms of burned land.
Managers of several cities in the Southeast and cities had ordered residents to evacuate Tuesday while firefighters had trouble containing multiple flames fueled by dry winds. The biggest fires were in Andong, the neighboring counties of Uiseong and Sancheong, and the city of Ulsan, according to the Interior Ministry of South Korea.
Earlier Tuesday, officials said that firefighters had extinguished most of the largest forest fires in these regions, but wind and dry conditions allowed the flames to spread again. But the efforts to fight fires were partially suspended during the night as the winds reinforced.
The fire in Uiseong has destroyed almost half of more than 30 structures in Gounsa, a temple that was originally built in the 7th century. Among the destroyed structures were two “treasures” designated by the State – a pavilion -shaped structure built on a stream built in 1668 and a structure of the Joseon dynasty built in 1904 to mark the longevity of a king.
The “treasure” designated by the state of the temple, a statue of stone Buddha was made in the 8th century, was evacuated in a safe place, according to the government and the Buddhist officials.
The Ministry of Justice said that it had protector 500 in a detainee in a detention center in Cheongsong, another city in the South, but no damage was reported to the establishment.
The Korea Forest Service said that it had increased its forest fire warning to the most “serious” level on Tuesday, forcing local governments to allocate more workers to emergency interventions, to strengthen entrance restrictions to forests and parks and recommend that military units retain live shooting exercises.
The 18 dead include four government firefighters who were killed in Sancheong on Saturday after being trapped by rapid flames driven by strong winds, officials said.
Government representatives suspect that human error has caused several fires, perhaps due to the use of fire while cleaning the grass invaded by vegetation in family tombs or sparks of welding work.
