<Anchor>
The forest fires on the east coast have not been extinguished for five days.
Yesterday (the 7th), the wind had subsided and progress was expected to be made in extinguishing the flames, but the helicopter was not able to enter because the haze was too thick.
There are concerns that it will take quite a while to put out the fire.
This is reporter Han So-hee.
<Reporter>
Gangneung, Gangwon-do, seen from a helicopter yesterday afternoon.
It is covered in a hazy mist, and even the shape of the mountain cannot be seen properly.
Yesterday, the fourth day of the forest fire, the forest authorities, who had expected great progress due to the calming winds and favorable weather conditions, were again blocked by thick fog.
[Byeongam Choi / Director of the Korea Forest Service (Yesterday): I thought that the current evolution rate of Okgye and Donghae in Gangneung would be good around 12:00.
There was now a lot of cloud cover, so I couldn't work...
.]
The plan to extinguish the main fire by first suppressing the forest fires in Gangneung and the East Sea, which had a high extinguishing rate, and then gathering firefighting equipment in Uljin, was disrupted.
Fortunately, the fire that spread to the Geumgangsong community in Sogwang-ri prevented the damage by building a defense line overnight by the Forest Service.
The extinguishing rate was 50% for the wildfire that started in Uljin and spread to Samcheok, and there was no significant progress in the morning.
In addition, the wildfire that started in Gangneung and spread to the East Sea has a fire rate of 90%.
It is estimated that about 21,765 ha have been burned so far.
Uljin was the largest with 16,913 hectares, followed by 2,100 hectares in the East Sea and 1,900 hectares in Gangneung.
The situation is close to the damage caused by the 2000 East Coast wildfire in which 23,000 hectares were burned.
According to the Korea Forest Service, the momentum of the wildfire is too strong to extinguish, and it will take a lot of time to extinguish.