<Anchor> The
wind is blowing quite strongly in the dry weather, and the fire has not been extinguished yet.
The forestry authorities plan to put out a big fire within today (11th) by mobilizing all firefighting helicopters.
This is G1 Broadcasting reporter Won Seok-jin.
<Reporter>
Red cauldrons are drawn on each ridge, and white smoke is constantly rising from the mountain.
A fire broke out in a hillside in Songcheong-ri, Yanggu-eup, Yanggu-gun, around 3:40 pm yesterday.
The fire, believed to have started when a self-employed man in his 50s, who was self-employed nearby, burned fallen leaves, quickly spread as the wind blew through the parched forest.
Residents who were burnt by the flames that had reached the edge of the village were unable to leave their homes.
[Chang-gi Cho / Yanggu-eup, Yanggu-gun, Gangwon: The fire in the mountain in front of you is not extinguished.
It keeps coming down.
When the fire goes down, you have to put it out, wait.]
Yanggu-gun issued an evacuation order for residents an hour after the fire broke out.
[Kim Jin-seok / Yanggu-eup, Yanggu-gun, Gangwon: My parents went down and my sister is there.
I live in a different place, but I have to go down.]
Yesterday, the forestry authorities issued a third stage of the forest fire and put in 15 firefighting helicopters, but it was difficult to extinguish the fire due to strong winds exceeding 10 m/s.
As the day darkened, all the helicopters withdrew, and about 500 firefighters built a fire line to prevent the fire from spreading to the private house.
Overnight, the area damaged by wildfires increased to more than 300 ha, equivalent to the size of 420 soccer fields.
[Kim Jin-hwa / Yanggu Fire Department Firefighter: I came in here to protect the fire, and I keep listening to the radio.
If a situation arises, you can move to another place.]
The forest authorities plan to put out 27 firefighting helicopters at the same time as today's sunrise to put out a big fire.