Chungnam 'Special Disaster Area' Wildfire Damage Tentatively Estimated at 32.5 Billion Won

At the beginning of this month, wildfires caused an estimated damage of 32.5 billion KRW in five cities and counties in Chungnam, including Hongseong.

Chungnam Province announced on the 17th that a preliminary damage amount of 32.527 billion KRW was estimated following an on-site investigation conducted from the 14th to the 16th by the Central Disaster Damage Joint Investigation Team in wildfire-affected areas such as Hongseong, Geumsan, Dangjin, Boryeong, and Buyeo.

On the 5th, the five cities and counties including Hongseong were declared special disaster zones.

The investigation results showed damages including ▲63 houses destroyed ▲113 evacuees from 63 households ▲68,351 livestock ▲237 agricultural and livestock facilities destroyed ▲33,522㎡ of crops damaged ▲445 agricultural machines lost ▲14.74 million㎡ of forest area affected.

By city and county, the damage amount was highest in Hongseong at 28.1486 billion KRW, followed by Boryeong with 2.3431 billion KRW, Dangjin with 915.4 million KRW, Buyeo with 635.6 million KRW, and Geumsan with 484.3 million KRW.

Meanwhile, based on the preliminary damage scale, the province plans to establish a wildfire damage recovery plan and promptly execute recovery funds once the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters finalizes the damage recovery budget.

Currently, the province is constructing prefabricated houses for evacuees and expects to provide housing to them within 30 days.

Separately, for residents wishing to rent housing (10 households), the province signed a business agreement with the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) to enable immediate move-in.

The province also proposed to the central government the need to increase social disaster recovery support funds for permanent restoration.

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