<Anchor> The
forest fire that occurred in Andong yesterday (21st) is still burning along the ridge.
The fire department and the Forest Service are engaged in an all-out war on the fire with the goal of completely seizing the flames by this morning.
Reporter Park Chan-beom, please tell us the news.
<Reporter> The
fire department and the Forest Service estimate the extinguishing rate at about 30% as of 9 am today.
From yesterday evening, the wind has gone down and the evolution rate is expected to increase gradually.
Authorities estimate that about 200 hectares of forest have been lost to date.
About 400 people in the neighborhood were evacuated to the town hall and nearby campsites to escape the flames, and no human injury occurred.
The fire department and the Korea Forest Service resumed the extinguishing of helicopters, which was stopped at night, from 7 am this morning, and about 20 helicopters are sequentially putting in the flames.
The fire department and the Forest Service are setting a goal to catch all of the main flames in the morning as a strong wind of 4.5m per second is forecast from the afternoon.
Forest fires were reported for the first time that smoke was rising from Yasan, Imdong-myeon, Andong-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, yesterday afternoon.
In addition, forest fires occurred in 9 areas nationwide yesterday and today, including Yecheon, Gyeongbuk, Hadong, Gyeongnam, and Yeongdong, Chungbuk in dry weather.
The Forest Service has upgraded the forest fire crisis warning to the'severe' level, and the Ministry of Public Administration and Security is also operating a countermeasure support headquarters to support the extinguishing of forest fires.