'Wildfire on the East Coast Extinguished in Four Days'... Area 77 Times Larger than Yeouido Reduced to Ashes

Uljin 17,279ha · Samcheok 1,142ha · Gangneung 1,900ha · Donghae 2,100ha Damage

Wildfire Suppression in Okgye, Gangneung [Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ra Young-cheol] The wildfires in Ok-gye, Gangneung, and Donghae were extinguished four days after they started.

The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH) announced on the same day, "The Donghae coast wildfire caused damage to approximately 22,461 hectares of forest (area affected by the wildfire)," adding, "The main fire was extinguished around 7 p.m. on the 8th."

The scale of this wildfire damage is 77.5 times the area of Yeouido (290 hectares, the area inside Yunjungno embankment) and equivalent to the size of 31,458 soccer fields.

This approaches the record largest damage area of the 2000 Donghae coast wildfire (23,794 hectares).

By region, the estimated damage is 17,279 hectares in Uljin, 1,142 hectares in Samcheok, 1,900 hectares in Gangneung, and 2,100 hectares in Donghae.

There were no casualties, and 2,758 residents were evacuated. Damage was reported to 577 facilities, 352 houses, 45 agricultural and livestock facilities, 119 factories and warehouses, and 7 religious facilities.

A total of 24 helicopters and 1,543 personnel were mobilized day and night to extinguish the wildfire.

The forestry authorities plan to deploy monitoring personnel to prevent re-ignition and conduct an accurate investigation of the damage situation.

Earlier, the wildfire in Yeongwol, Gangwon Province, which had continued for five days, was extinguished on the morning of the same day after about 93 hours of occurrence, with the deployment of 7 helicopters and 450 personnel.

Meanwhile, the Donghae coast wildfire started in the early morning of the 5th when resident A (60) of Namyang-ri, Ok-gye-myeon, Gangneung City, set the fire using a gas torch, citing that "residents ignored him."

The police seized the torch, helmet, axe, and butane gas as evidence at the time of A's arrest.

A admitted to arson, and the court issued an arrest warrant for A on charges of arson of inhabited buildings, arson of general buildings, and violation of the Forest Protection Act, citing "risk of flight and possibility of evidence destruction."

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