by From Minwoo Park and DaewoGOUSE KIM
Andong, South Korea (Reuters) game fire, which raged in South Korea, doubled on Thursday from one day before when the authorities described the blazes as the worst natural fire department disaster in the country, with at least 27 people killed and historical temples burned.
More than 33,000 hectares (81,500 acres) were charred or were still burning in the largest fires that started in the center of Uiseong County, and made it the largest individual forest fire in South Korea’s history. The previous record in March 2000 was 24,000 hectares (59,000 acres).
“We are nationally in a critical situation with numerous victims due to the unprecedented rapid spread of forest fires,” the incumbent President Han Duck-Soo told the government’s reaction.
The military has released shares with aviation fuel to develop the fire fighting helicopter to continue to bring flames over mountain regions in the southeast of the country, in which fires have been burning for almost a week.
The Security Ministry said more than 120 helicopters were used in three regions that fought against the blazes. South Korea is dependent on helicopters to combat forest fires because it has its mountainous terrain. A helicopter pilot died on Wednesday after trying to tackle a fire.
The forest fires, which came in Uiseong, quickly moved to the east and spread almost to the coast, worn by gusty winds and with dry conditions that aggravate the situation.
The OUSON-FURE spread quickly on Wednesday and reached the coast County of Yeongdeok 51 km (32 miles) in just 12 hours, said, as director of the satellite image analysis for the National Forestry Service.
While the meteorological agency predicts a certain rain for the southwest, it is expected that the precipitation in most affected areas is below five millimeters, with many areas waiting for rain from the early afternoon.
“The amount of rain will be small so that it doesn’t look like it would be great help to extinguish the fire,” the Korea Forest Service Minister Sang-Sang-Seop told a briefing.
Experts said that the Osong fire showed an extremely unusual spread in terms of its scale and speed, and that climate change makes more and fatal and fatal worldwide.
Higher temperatures, which were reinforced by humans caused by humans, contributed to the existing seasonally dry conditions and transform dry landscapes into dangerous fire fuel in the region, the Climate Central Group, an independent body of scientists and researchers, in a report.
The forest fires have cut a trace of devastation through an area that corresponds to about half of the Singapore area and devastated everything on their way, including historical temples and houses in the mountain forest regions of the province of North Gyeongsang.
Firefighters are on standby to protect the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the village of Hahoe and the Tschüssan Confuzian Academy in the city of Andong when a fire skips the stream that flows around them.
The picturesque folk village has traditional Korean houses, many with straw roofs, while the Confucian academy goes back more than 450 years.
The fires have already badly damaged other historical sites, including a large part of the Gounsa Temple in Uiseong, which was built in 681.
“The buildings and remains of what Buddhist monks have left for more than 1,300 years,” said Deungwoon, the head of the Gounsa Temple.
(Additional reporting by Nicoco Chan and Hongji Kim in Uiseong, Jisoo Kim and Joyce Lee in Seoul; writing by Jack Kimediting by Ed Davies and Michael Perry)
