<Anchor>



There are many hundreds of years old pine trees in Uljin, North Gyeongsang Province, where the fire broke out.

Among them, in order to protect Geumgang pine, which is considered the best due to its excellent material, last night (6th) night and today, firefighters are building a defense line to prevent the fire from spreading.



Next, reporter Hyung-woo Hyung.



<Reporter>



One of the important places in the fire suppression operation in Uljin last night was the Geumgangsong colony in Sogwang-ri.



This is because it is a place with over 12 million pine trees, including 80,000 cypress trees that are over 200 years old on an area of ​​2,200 ha.



To prevent a forest fire that reached 500 meters in front of the colony, the Forest Service and firefighters sprayed water overnight and raked dry leaves to strike a defense line.



[Byeongam Choi / Director of the Korea Forest Service: We will focus on helicopters at dawn.

You just have to block it well until then.]



To check the direction of the fire, a drone equipped with a thermal imaging camera was launched, and 51 helicopters were put in with the sunrise.



The direction of the wind also changed toward the opposite side of the colony, and the defense succeeded dramatically.



[Byeongam Choi/Director of the Korea Forest Service: I would like to say that we have succeeded in protecting the pine forest, which is a key protected area.]



There was no trace of fire at the Geumgangsong colony I visited this afternoon.




It is a 500-year-old Geumgang pine that is believed to have existed since the Joseon Dynasty.



It has a diameter of nearly 100 cm and a height of 25 m.



Residents who have lived with Geumgangsong for nearly 40 years were shocked and swept away their hearts.



[Han Sook-ja / Uljin-gun Sogwang-ri: The smoke is full, the whole here.

To the extent that I can't see far ahead...

It smells and smells like ashes.]



[Park Young-gil/Sogwang-ri, Uljin-gun: There are very nice pine trees on the ridge side, and the best pine trees you can see here



. He said that he would send elite manpower to the forest fire points adjacent to it.



(Video coverage: Hyung Yoon, Video editing: Taeho Yoon)