Forest authorities focused on putting out the main fires of the Uljin and Samcheok wildfires that occurred on the 4th and continued for the ninth day, but they did not reach full relief.



At a briefing at the forest fire site command headquarters in Jukbyeon-myeon, Uljin-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do on the afternoon of the 12th, Choi Byeong-am, head of the Korea Forest Service, said, "We conducted an operation to intensively weaken the fire forces at the foot of Eungbongsan, but we were unable to put out the main fire."



As of 5pm today, the evolution rate is 92%.



The area affected by forest fires is 28,832 hectares, an increase of 185 hectares from the morning.



Today, the forestry authorities intensively deployed 80 helicopters around Eungbongsan Mountain, and put out ground fire fighters, special firefighters, and special forces to put out some of the flames.



In addition, 10 people from the aerial firefighting team were sent by helicopter to the top of Mt. Eungbong, where the fire had already passed.



It also succeeded in stopping the fire forces moving inland to the west.



Forest officials believe that in the case of Mt. Eungbong, where there are many stones and gravel, there will be a considerable amount of fire energy in the ground as the fire burns for a long time.



A typical mountain fire can be put out in one day if 80 helicopters are put in, but this fire is not extinguished easily because of this characteristic of Mt. Eungbong.



Currently, it is raining little by little around Eungbongsan Mountain.



The forest authority is expected to rain about 5 mm in the Uljin area tomorrow, so they decided to start the firefighting work according to the situation.



In addition, it was decided to install a monitoring system only in Sogwang-ri, Song-myeon, Geumgang, without special firefighting work on Mt. Eungbong at night.



In addition, the Surion helicopter, which can extinguish the fire at night, is on standby to extinguish the fire as soon as it spreads.



Director Choi said, "It will depend on the rain tomorrow, but there is a possibility that it will be fully completed."



(Photo = Provided by Gyeongbuk Fire Department, Yonhap News)