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We started a full-scale investigation into how the forest fire in Uljin, Gyeongsangbuk-do, which caused great damage, started in the first place.
The results of our research so far have put more weight on true stories, such as cigarette fires, rather than spontaneous combustion.
Correspondent Kim Min-jun.
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White smoke starts to rise from a mountain in Buk-myeon, Uljin-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do, around 11:15 a.m. the day before (4th).
At about 16 minutes, you will see a red flame.
In less than 10 minutes, when strong winds blow in dry weather, the fire spreads violently above the ridge.
Fire trucks arrived in about 20 minutes after a local complaint, but the fire had already gone up to the top of the mountain.
[Yoon Seok-hyeon/Informant: I heard the sound of burning pine leaves, so when I went out, the flames caught on to the pine trees for about 10m at first.
As the wind blows, to the top of the mountain...
It moved to the top of the mountain in two to three minutes.]
It seems that the fire that started like this spread to Uljin and Samcheok.
Forest authorities identified the initial ignition site through a primary on-site investigation.
When analyzing the weather conditions at the time and CCTV footage of the ignition point, the probability of spontaneous ignition is considered low.
[Chun-geun Kwon / Doctor of Forest Fire and Landslide Research Department, National Academy of Forest Sciences: First of all, the only wildfire reported as spontaneous ignition is lightning.
Lightning.
Even if you look at the weather records, there is no record of lightning strikes anywhere in the country, so considering the fact that there are many vehicles going in and out and there are private houses around, we plan to investigate with all possibilities of true fire or arson open
. Three vehicles passed a nearby road just before the climb, and we are investigating that a cigarette thrown by the driver may be the cause of the forest fire.
(Video editing: Tae-ho Yoon, CG: Soo-in Jo)