Year-Round and Large-Scale 'Sanbuljaenan'... Korea Forest Service "Minimizing Damage through Advanced Wildfire Response"

Members of the Sanbul Disaster Special Firefighting Team are conducting ground wildfire suppression operations at a wildfire site. Photo is unrelated to the article. Provided by the Korea Forest Service.

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Wildfires are becoming more frequent and larger throughout the year. This is a phenomenon experienced worldwide, and the Korea Forest Service plans to focus its efforts on enhancing wildfire response systems to minimize wildfire damage.

According to the Korea Forest Service on the 8th, a total of 1,572 wildfires have occurred domestically over the past three years, with a damage area of 6,915 hectares. By year, there were 653 fires in 2019 with 3,255 hectares damaged; 620 fires in 2020 with 2,920 hectares damaged; and 299 fires this year (as of August 30) with 740 hectares damaged.

Considering that an average of 474 wildfires occurred annually over the past 10 years, causing damage to 1,120 hectares, the number of wildfires per year over the past three years has increased by more than 200 compared to the 10-year average, and the damage area has roughly doubled. This indicates that wildfires are becoming more frequent and larger throughout the year.

This trend is not only seen in South Korea but also worldwide. For example, as of the 5th, 88 large wildfires are occurring and ongoing in states such as California and Washington in the United States.

In particular, the ‘Dixie’ wildfire in California is expected to be recorded as the worst wildfire in history, with a damage area exceeding 360,000 hectares.

Additionally, in Siberia, Russia, wildfires have simultaneously broken out in about 200 locations, destroying forests covering 20 million hectares?three times the forest area of South Korea. In Canada, 293 wildfires are currently occurring (ongoing), with 30 hectares of forest in British Columbia turned to ashes.

Furthermore, in southwestern European countries such as Greece, Spain, Italy, and France, wildfires are occurring frequently on an unprecedented scale, increasing the damage area.

The Korea Forest Service cites climate change (or climate crisis) as the background for the year-round and large-scale wildfires worldwide. They attribute this to abnormal high temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius and extremely dry atmospheric conditions that fuel the wildfires.

Moreover, the Korea Forest Service believes that insufficient wildfire response policies and negligent forest management by governments worldwide are causes that increase wildfire damage.

For example, Greece has failed to reduce wildfire damage due to a weak wildfire response system, including a lack of cooperation between related agencies caused by the division of wildfire prevention and suppression duties, and the absence of specialized wildfire suppression teams.

Also, the Turkish government faces difficulties responding to wildfire sites due to a lack of firefighting helicopters, relying on support from the European Union and neighboring countries, indicating insufficient firefighting infrastructure.

In response, the Korea Forest Service plans to address the year-round and large-scale wildfires by enhancing wildfire prevention and on-site response systems, strengthening aerial and ground firefighting capabilities, and establishing a proactive wildfire prevention system.

First, the enhancement of wildfire prevention and on-site response systems will focus on expanding the distribution of intelligent (smart) CCTV mainly in the East Coast region, where the risk of large wildfires is high, and reducing wildfire surveillance blind spots by utilizing wildfire drone monitoring teams (32 teams) and surveillance cameras (1,448 units).

Strengthening aerial and ground firefighting capabilities will involve replacing 13 aging small and medium helicopters with medium and large helicopters and introducing three new large helicopters capable of nighttime firefighting activities. Additionally, to effectively respond to wildfires occurring in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the Korea Forest Service plans to establish the ‘DMZ Forest Aviation Management Office’ in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province.

To build a proactive wildfire prevention system, the Korea Forest Service plans to remove herbaceous plants, shrubs, dead trees, and weak trees that could trigger large wildfires to maintain an appropriate forest density. They also plan to expand forest roads to facilitate the entry of firefighting vehicles and personnel to wildfire sites and enable forest roads to serve as firebreaks during wildfire occurrences.

Lee Seok-woo, head of the Forest Environment Conservation Research Department at the National Institute of Forest Science under the Korea Forest Service, said, “Most wildfires in Korea are caused by carelessness such as arson by visitors and burning activities,” and added, “We ask the public to participate in wildfire prevention so that everyone can be safe from wildfires.”

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