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warm spring is dry, so it is also a time when forest fires follow one after another.

With 117 wildfires counted in April alone, there are still too few large helicopters to play a big role at this time, spraying a lot of water at once.



Reporter Yoo Deok-gi reports.



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A fire-fighting helicopter with a water basket is pumped up from the reservoir.



Usually, they are in charge of rescue activities such as transporting emergency patients, but they were mobilized as the wildfire grew.



This small and medium-sized helicopter can hold about 1,000 liters at a time.



Even that is often scattered in the air when water is sprinkled on it.



On the other hand, a large helicopter equipped with a large-capacity water tank of 3,000 liters will drop a large amount of water intensively without scattering.



The fire at Suri Mountain in Gunpo, Gyeonggi-do, which occurred early last month, also began to be caught only after a large helicopter was deployed.



[Captain Park Jeong-hyuk / Gyeonggi Fire and Disaster Headquarters Special Response Team: As soon as (large helicopter) was put in, the initial suppression was completed on the second day.

They succeeded in extinguishing the initial fire with a huge amount of (water).]



The Forest Service is responsible for extinguishing forest fires, but preventing damage to people, houses and facilities is the responsibility of the fire department.



The problem is that as wildfires become more frequent and larger due to extreme weather, the role of the fire department is growing.



However, there are only five large helicopters with a freshwater capacity of 2,700 liters or more in the country.



It is a structure in which it is difficult for local governments with firefighting command and control to decide on the introduction and operation of the unit because it exceeds KRW 20 billion per unit and the maintenance cost is also high.



Disaster response in areas without large firefighting helicopters will inevitably become more vulnerable.



[Ryu Young-ki / Professor, Department of Aviation Safety Management, Gongju University: You must have (large helicopters) divided by region.



A realistic alternative is to introduce

two or three large-scale firefighting helicopters at the national expense to fill the regional gap according to the risk of wildfires.

There is.



(Video coverage: Chan-soo Lee, video editing: Seung-yeol Lee, CG: Soo-in Jo)