Gangwon Wildfire, Gaining Momentum with Strong Winds... Forest and Fire Authorities' All-Out Response

Gangneung Ok-gye Wildfire Spreads to Donghae... Partial Closure of Donghae Expressway
Uljin and Samcheok Wildfires Move South Again... 57 Helicopters and 1,200 Firefighters Deployed

Wildfire in Okgye-myeon, Gangneung [Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ra Young-cheol] A wildfire that started in Uljin, Gyeongbuk, spread to Samcheok, Gangwon, and overnight, wildfires also broke out in two locations in the Gangneung area.

According to the forestry and fire authorities on the 5th, a fire that started around 1:05 a.m. at a house in Namyang-ri, Ok-gye-myeon, Gangneung City, spread to the adjacent mountain.

Currently, there are no reported casualties, and residents have evacuated.

The forestry and fire authorities established firebreaks to prevent the wildfire from spreading to residential areas and carried out firefighting operations.

As the wildfire from Ok-gye, Gangneung spread to Donghae, the Donghae Expressway section from Ok-gye Interchange to Donghae Interchange, a 14.9 km stretch, was fully closed from 8 a.m. that day.

Earlier, around 10:14 p.m. on the 4th, a wildfire broke out near the Yeongdong Expressway in Songam-ri, Seongsan-myeon.

In the affected area, dry weather and strong gusts of wind reaching about 7 m/s made firefighting very difficult.

The flames, which initially spread rapidly with the strong winds, slowed down in their rate of expansion overnight.

About 50 households in Songam-ri temporarily evacuated to the village hall, and no casualties have been reported.

As of the morning of the day, winds in the Gangneung area have relatively calmed down.

Two helicopters and five helicopters were deployed for firefighting operations in Seongsan-myeon and Ok-gye-myeon, respectively.

Samcheok Wildfire Helicopter Suppression Begins [Yonhap News]

Meanwhile, the government activated the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters and declared a disaster situation in Gangwon and Gyeongbuk from 10 p.m. on the previous day (the 4th).

When a disaster situation is declared, emergency measures necessary for wildfire response can be taken, including mobilization of personnel, equipment, and supplies, designation of danger zones and evacuation orders, emergency support, and emergency assembly of public officials.

The disaster authorities urged residents of villages near the wildfire to actively follow the guidance and instructions of the disaster authorities.

The nationwide fire mobilization order No. 1 issued the previous day was upgraded to No. 2 from 5:30 a.m. that day.

With daylight, efforts to extinguish the wildfire are accelerating.

However, the flames that had moved northward to Samcheok, Gangwon, moved south again that morning, and the forestry authorities are putting all their efforts into firefighting.

They deployed 57 helicopters, including 29 from the Korea Forest Service, 18 military helicopters, 7 firefighting helicopters, 2 police helicopters, and 1 national park helicopter, in the Uljin and Samcheok areas.

More than 1,200 firefighting personnel, including city and county officials, firefighters, military units, and police, were also deployed.

The forestry authorities announced that the wildfire damage area has reached 3,300 hectares, including 3,240 hectares in Uljin and 60 hectares in Samcheok, equivalent to 4,621 soccer fields, marking the largest damage scale in the past 10 years.

In particular, the flames moved to within 2 km of the largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) production base in Samcheok, but the critical danger was narrowly avoided.

The forestry and fire authorities are making an all-out effort to extinguish the main fire during the morning.

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