<Anchor> The
Donghae and Gangneung forest fires were planned to be extinguished before sunset yesterday (the 7th).
However, as the smoke was so bad that it became difficult to deploy the helicopter, it failed to extinguish 100%.
Reporter Kim Kwan-jin reports.
<Reporter> The
forest fire in Gangneung, Donghae, was predicted by the forestry authorities to be able to extinguish 100% of the fire before sunset until yesterday morning.
The evolution rate, which was 50% the night before, went up to 90% around noon, and the evolution seemed to accelerate.
However, from around 12:50 p.m., the helicopter work was completely stopped.
This is because the smoke from the fire extinguishing could not escape to the outside and remained at the scene, obstructing the view.
25 helicopters were put into operation for 1 hour and 40 minutes, and it was impossible to get off.
[Chae Byeong-moon/Director of the East Coast Forest Fire Prevention Center in Gangwon-do: Air is stagnant and foggy. All helicopters have been unloaded for helicopter safety.]
As weak south winds of less than 1 meter per second and west winds meet, the smoke from the forest fire is close to 30 km to the north. It went up and spread to downtown Gangneung.
Inquiries from the city hall and the fire department to check if a forest fire has occurred in Gangneung also followed.
[Hong Hyun-hee/Gangneung Citizen: There is also a lot of acting.
I can’t see well, my neck hurts a lot, and I was very worried that there was another wildfire.]
So far, 50 houses have been spread due to the Okgye forest fire in the East Sea, and it is tentatively counted that 4,500 hectares of forest have been burned.
The forest authorities put 740 fire-fighting workers overnight in Bicheon-dong and Baekbok-ryeong areas in Donghae-si to protect facilities and prevent the spread of wildfires.
The Yeongwol wildfire is also difficult to access due to the steep mountain flow, so the extinguishing rate is only 60%.