Gyeongbuk Yeongdeok Wildfire, Main Fire Extinguished After 36 Hours

Forest Service aerial firefighting team members are deployed to the wildfire site to extinguish remaining flames. Photo by Forest Service

[Asia Economy (Yeongdeok) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The forest fire in Yeongdeok, Gyeongbuk, was extinguished after 36 hours. According to the Central Forest Fire Prevention Headquarters of the Korea Forest Service on the 17th, the main fire in Yeongdeok, Gyeongbuk, was completely extinguished as of 2:30 PM that day.

The fire initially broke out on the 15th in Samhwa-ri, Jipum-myeon, Yeongdeok-gun, Gyeongbuk, in the area of Mountain 5-1, but the forestry authorities succeeded in extinguishing it within 6 hours and 54 minutes.

However, it reignited around 2:18 AM the next day (the 16th) due to climatic influences. Above all, the fire spread due to the rugged terrain and strong winds, threatening residential areas, forcing 312 residents from 192 households in the nearby Hwasu 1-ri and 2-ri to evacuate to the Hwasu-ri village hall.

In response, the forestry authorities issued a level 3 forest fire alert (at 12:45 PM on the 16th) and launched an all-out firefighting effort, successfully extinguishing the main fire without any casualties or property damage.

The firefighting effort involved 1,704 personnel, including elite aerial firefighting teams and special forest fire suppression teams, as well as forest officials, and a total of 40 helicopters were deployed.

This is the first time in the past 10 years that 40 firefighting helicopters have been deployed to a single forest fire site.

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