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The forest fire in Miryang, Gyeongsangnam-do, which started in the morning of yesterday (31st), has not been extinguished until now due to dry weather and strong winds.

The forestry authorities have issued a three-step response and are focusing on the evolution.



Correspondent Kim Min-jun.



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Cloudy smoke continues to come out of the hillside at sunset.



The wildfire that started in the hillside in Chunhwa-ri, Bubuk-myeon, Miryang-si, Gyeongnam-si yesterday morning did not go out all night.



The fire spread rapidly with strong winds of 11 meters per second, and the forestry authorities worked all night to extinguish the fire, but failed to catch the main fire.



[Nam Seong-hyeon / Director of the Korea Forest Service: The reason the evolution rate is a little sluggish is that there is a strong wind with an instantaneous wind speed of 11 m/s.

There is difficulty in extinguishing the fire due to the haze.]



Yesterday at 11:45 am, the forest authorities, which issued the '3rd stage of the forest fire', put in 118 firefighting equipment and 1,500 firefighters at night even after the sun went down. Evolution was done.



In particular, defense lines were built in case the fire spreads to private houses, and thermal imaging precision drones were also deployed to identify the spread of the fire from time to time.



Although 251 hectares of forest were lost in the fire, there were no casualties or property damage.



1,95 people, including nearby residents and inmates at the Milyang Detention Center, have been evacuated to a safe area.



The firefighting rate so far has been 41%, and the forest authorities started firefighting again by sending in 57 firefighting helicopters at the same time as today's sunrise.



In addition, we plan to determine the exact cause of the fire as soon as the firefighting work is completed.