Wildfire in Hongcheon, Gangwon 'Extinguished in 9 Hours'... Presumed Cause: Burning of Agricultural Residues

A wildfire suppression team member from the Korea Forest Service Aviation Headquarters is working overnight to extinguish a wildfire in a mountain area. The photo is unrelated to the article. Source=Korea Forest Service

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The wildfire in Hongcheon, Gangwon Province, was extinguished after 9 hours. The forestry authorities estimate that the fire initially broke out during the burning of agricultural byproducts.

According to the Central Wildfire Prevention Headquarters of the Korea Forest Service on the 24th, the Hongcheon wildfire occurred around 3:52 PM the previous day in the hills around Seongsan-ri, Hwacheon-myeon, Hongcheon-gun, Gangwon Province.

To extinguish the wildfire, the Korea Forest Service urgently deployed five firefighting helicopters, including a super-large helicopter, and 248 ground firefighting personnel to the site, successfully putting out the fire at 12:40 AM on the 24th, 9 hours after the fire started.

Drones also played a significant role in extinguishing the wildfire at night. The Korea Forest Service deployed wildfire drones on site to monitor the fire’s direction and scale in real time, then relayed the information to firefighting personnel such as the Wildfire Disaster Special Firefighting Team, enabling an effective response to the nighttime wildfire.

So far, no casualties or property damage have been reported due to the Hongcheon wildfire. However, it is tentatively estimated that 20 hectares of forest were destroyed by the fire.

Currently, the Korea Forest Service suspects that the initial cause of the Hongcheon wildfire was the burning of agricultural byproducts.

Ko Rak-sam, head of the Central Wildfire Prevention Headquarters of the Korea Forest Service, stated, “We will do our utmost to prevent the fire from reigniting by thoroughly managing residual flames and monitoring for flare-ups. We ask residents near the forest and hikers not to carry fire sources when entering the mountains and to be cautious of wildfire occurrences.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.