Hwasun-gun to Operate 'Autumn Forest Fire Prevention Situation Room' Until the 15th of Next Month

Published 04 Nov.2022 10:51(KST)

[Hwasun=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Hyuk-jun] Hwasun-gun, Jeollanam-do (Governor Gu Bok-gyu) has established a wildfire prevention plan for the fall of 2022 and has begun full-scale wildfire prevention activities by operating a wildfire prevention situation room.

According to the county on the 4th, the wildfire prevention situation room will be operated by the County Office’s Forest Industry Division and the Eup/Myeon Industry Teams until the 15th of next month. It will flexibly organize and operate work shifts classified into four stages?interest, caution, alert, and severe?based on the issuance of wildfire disaster crisis warnings according to climatic conditions.

Firefighting personnel were selected last month as 28 specialized wildfire prevention firefighters through a two-step job performance test, which included carrying a 15kg backpack pump and walking 1.2 km. The first candidates were selected excluding high-net-worth individuals, those with more than 70% of median income, and public pension recipients, linked with the Ilmoa system for financially supported jobs.

The county urged residents not to burn rice paddies or field ridges within 100 meters of forest-adjacent areas, not to burn agricultural by-products or other household waste, and to refrain from entering restricted forest areas to prevent wildfires.

Burning agricultural by-products such as chili stalks and waste vinyl in forest-adjacent areas violates the Forest Protection Act and is subject to a fine of up to 300,000 won, so even minor burning of agricultural by-products is prohibited and strictly punished.

A county official said, “We ask all residents to become monitors to cooperate in wildfire prevention so that not a single wildfire occurs. If you discover any burning activities, please contact the county office or the Eup/Myeon situation room. Due to lower than average rainfall and dry weather, the risk of wildfires is extremely high, so we request active participation from residents in wildfire prevention.”