<Reporter> We



bring you the news of the Miryang wildfire.

Yesterday (31st), the forest fire in Miryang, Gyeongsangnam-do, has not been extinguished for two days.

Strong winds and haze are making it difficult to contain the flames, and the extinguishing work is expected to continue tonight.



Reporter Park Se-won reports on the situation of the Miryang wildfire.



<Reporter>



White smoke and fog surround the whole mountain, and red flames pierce the forest and soar into the sky.



A large firefighting helicopter is constantly spraying water, but the momentum of the wildfire is seldom dampened.



The forest authorities were planning to concentrate 57 helicopters into the fire zone as soon as dawn.



However, due to unexpected thick haze and gusts of wind, only two helicopters were deployed, so the aerial firefighting was almost stopped in the morning.



Ground firefighting also had difficulties in accessing firefighting vehicles and manpower because there were no forest roads in the forest fire area.



Helicopter evolution only resumed at noon, but the evolution rate remained at 62%.



The fire-affected area counted so far was 554 ha and 760 soccer fields were burned, and the fire band, or caustic, to be suppressed increased by about 1 km compared to the daytime.



Tensions have increased as the wildfire spread to the vicinity of a power transmission tower 500m and 1.2km in Oksan-ri.



[Nam Seong-hyeon / Director of the Forest Service: Since the transmission tower is located in the north direction where the forest fire is burning, we are taking measures to prevent damage by spraying a forest fire spread retardant.]



Residents were evacuated to a safe place.



In addition, there was no damage to private houses or towns, so there was no major obstacle to voting today.



However, as the fire has not been extinguished for two days, residents' anxiety is growing.



[Lee Jae-jun / Miryang resident: There is a lot of smoke and ashes are flying.

Because the wind is blowing towards our house...

.]



The forestry authorities plan to respond with all-out efforts by deploying special firefighting teams to prevent the fire from spreading to private houses and power transmission towers overnight.



(Video provided by Korea Forest Service)