Wildfire Spreads in Okcheon Hills... 'Forest Fire Level 1' Declared

Spread to Yeongdong Mountain,
Firefighting Operations Underway

At around 11:55 a.m. on the 23rd, a fire of unknown cause broke out on a mountain in Jocheon-ri, Cheongseong-myeon, Okcheon-gun, Chungbuk.

The fire spread to a nearby mountain in Busang-ri, Yongsan-myeon, Yeongdong-gun, prompting the forestry authorities to issue a Level 1 wildfire response in the afternoon and deploy eight firefighting helicopters and about ten vehicles to extinguish the fire.

Level 1 wildfire response is issued when the expected damage area is less than 30 hectares and the firefighting time is expected to be under 8 hours. When Level 1 is declared, initial response teams from local governments, national forest management firefighting crews, and helicopters from neighboring agencies are additionally deployed.

Okcheon-gun mobilized all 150 public official wildfire firefighting personnel, and Yeongdong-gun issued an emergency recall order to all public officials to respond to the wildfire.

A Yeongdong-gun official stated, "Although the wildfire has not directly reached residential areas, an evacuation order was issued due to the risk of spreading."

Due to the wildfire, as of 2:40 p.m. on the same day, Korea Expressway Corporation has blocked vehicle traffic heading toward Seoul on the Gyeongbu Expressway between Geumgang IC and Yeongdong IC.

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