Starting with Uljin, Gyeongsangbuk-do, on the afternoon of the 4th, forest fires occurred simultaneously in eight places across the country, including Samcheok, Yeongwol, Donghae, and Gangneung, in Gangwon, and the damage is increasing.



Fortunately, some of them have been extinguished, but the wildfires in Gangwon-do and Gyeongsangbuk-do have spread with strong winds and the fire department is nervous.



For the first time nationwide, a fire hazard warning level of 'severe' has been issued.



In particular, the wildfire that occurred in Uljin, Gyeongbuk on the afternoon of the 4th spread to Samcheok, Gangwon, and so on, causing serious damage.



According to the damage tally by the forestry authorities on the 5th, the area affected by the forest fire so far is 3,300 hectares, including 3,240 hectares in Uljin and 60 hectares in Samcheok, equivalent to 4,621 soccer fields, the largest amount of damage in the past 10 years.



There were no casualties, but only 158 houses were damaged in Uljin alone.



In addition, property damage occurred in 158 places, including the loss of 116 houses, and 4 transmission lines were also cut off.



6,126 residents of 35 villages in Uljin and Samcheok were also evacuated.



673 people have not yet returned home and are evacuating to village halls and sports facilities.



The Uljin and Samcheok wildfires threatened nearby nuclear power plants, LNG production bases, and power transmission lines, so there was an emergency at one time.



A forest fire broke out in Okgye-myeon, Gangneung, around 1:20 a.m. on the 5th, and it is rapidly spreading to the East Sea delusion.



The authorities put in 50 firefighters and 19 fire trucks to put out the initial fire, but as the wind blew strong, the wildfire quickly spread to the surrounding area, and at 5:30 a.m. it spread to the East Sea delusion.



For this reason, the approximately 15km section of the Donghae Expressway has been fully controlled.



Dry advisory and strong wind advisory are currently in place in these areas, and the humidity is 36%, which is very dry, and the wind is blowing strongly at around 5 m/s.



It is estimated that 60 hectares (600,000 m2) of forest, which is the area of ​​84 soccer fields so far, was burned in this fire, and 4 houses were burned down.



Last night at 10:20, a forest fire in a mountain near Yeongdong Expressway, Songam-ri, Seongsan-myeon, Gangneung-si, was found to have damaged 3 hectares (30,000 m2) of forest so far.



The forestry authorities have put in a total of 10 helicopters and 1,700 firefighters in the Gangneung and Donghae regions to evolve.



In addition, the wildfire that occurred in Kimsatgat-myeon, Yeongwol-gun at 12:40 pm yesterday (4th) is also spreading to the neighboring Sansol-myeon with strong winds.



The forest authorities are focusing their efforts on the fire, including resuming the firefighting work by sending three helicopters, soldiers, and police at 6:30 am today (the 5th).



A fire broke out overnight in a mountain in Macheon-myeon, Hamyang-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do, and was extinguished in about 9 hours. Also, a fire broke out at Mt. 9 in Hoedong-dong, Geumjeong-gu, Busan, burning 6,600 square meters of forest and the fire was extinguished in about 6 hours.



Earlier yesterday afternoon, the fire that occurred in Guryong Village, Gaepo-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul and moved to Mt. Daemo was completely extinguished in about 5 hours.



The fire, believed to have been caused by the villagers while cooking, burned 1.5 hectares (ha) of forest and 11 houses, including houses.



The Fire Department is the first to issue the highest 'severe' level among fire hazard warnings nationwide and mobilize 57 firefighting helicopters and available manpower to extinguish the wildfires in Gyeongbuk and Gangwon that have not yet caught the fire.



(Photo = provided by the Korea Forest Service, Yonhap News)