<Anchor>



The forest fires in Gyeongbuk and Gangwon have not been put out for the fourth day as of today (7th).

Today, the wind had subsided and I was expecting to be able to quell the strong flames, but the helicopter for fighting the forest fire was not able to fly properly due to thick fog and smoke at the site.

As the evolutionary work slows down, the damage continues to grow.



First news, this is reporter Han So-hee.



<Reporter>



Gangneung, Gangwon-do, seen from a helicopter this afternoon.



It is covered in a hazy mist, and even the shape of the mountain cannot be seen properly.



On 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: 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.



So far, the extinguishing rate is 50% of the wildfires that started in Uljin and spread to Samcheok, and there has been no 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 ha, followed by 2,100 ha in the East Sea and 1,900 ha in Gangneung.



The situation is close to the damage caused by the 2000 East Coast wildfire, which burned 23,000 hectares.



[Choi Byeong-am / Commissioner of the Korea Forest Service: I think that the complete evolution of the entire area will be a bit difficult tomorrow, so the goal is to mainly suppress this partial pine colony and the fire boats in the interviewed area...

.]



The Forest Service said that it would take a lot of time to extinguish the fire because the momentum of the forest fire was too strong.



(Video coverage: Jeong Seong-hwa and Lee Jae-young, video editing: Park Jin-hoon, helicopter pilot: Min Byeong-ho)