In South Korea, forest fires raged on Thursday from one day before when the authorities described the blazes as the worst natural fire department disaster in the country, with at least 26 people killed and historical temples burned.
More than 33,000 hectares were charred or burned in the largest of the fires that started in the center of Uiseong County, and made it the largest individual forest fire in the history of South Korea. The previous record was 24,000 hectares in a fire in March 2000.
“We are nationally in a critical situation with numerous victims due to the unprecedented rapid spread of forest fires,” the incumbent President Han Duck-Soo told the government’s reaction.
South Korea is dependent on helicopters to combat forest fires for its mountainous area, and the military has released aerial pollutants in order to keep them while flying, while trying to increase flames over mountainous regions in the southeast of the country that have been burning for almost a week.
The Security Ministry said more than 120 helicopters were used in three regions that fought against the blazes.
The forest fires, which came in Uiseong, quickly moved to the east and almost spread to the coast, supported by gusty winds and dry conditions.
Some rain, but not much
While the meteorological agency predicts a certain rain for the southwest, it is expected that the precipitation in most affected areas is below five millimeters.
“The amount of rain will be small so that it doesn’t look like it would be a great help to extinguish the fire,” the Korea Forest Service Minister Lim Sang Seop told a briefing.
Experts said that the Osong fire showed an extremely unusual spread in terms of its scale and speed, and that climate change makes more and fatal and fatal worldwide.
Higher temperatures, which were reinforced by humans caused by humans, contributed to the existing seasonally dry conditions and transform dry landscapes into dangerous fire fuel in the region, the Climate Central Group, an independent body of scientists and researchers, in a report.
