South Korea wildfires ‘largest on record’: disaster chief

ANDONG, South Korea: Wildfires in South Korea are now the largest and deadliest on record, having burned more forest and killed more people than any previous blaze, officials said on Thursday, as the death toll hit 27.

More than a dozen fires broke out over the weekend, scorching wide swathes of the southeast and forcing around 37,000 people to flee, with the fire cutting off roads and downing communications lines as residents escaped in panic.

South Korea´s Ministry of Interior and Safety said that 27 people had been killed and dozens more injured, with the toll likely to rise. It is the highest number of deaths since the Korea Forest Service started records for wildfires in 1987.

More than 35,000 hectares of forest have been burned, Lee Han-kyung, disaster and safety division chief said, adding that the fire was still spreading “rapidly”. “I don´t know how to describe it. My heart feels like it´s going to burst even now speaking about it,” said Kim Mi-ja, an 84-year-old Andong resident whose home was burnt down.

The extent of damage makes it South Korea´s largest ever wildfire, after an inferno in April 2000 that scorched 23,913 hectares across the east coast. Authorities said changing wind patterns and dry weather had revealed the limitations of conventional firefighting methods.

“I didn´t have the strength to put the fire out,” said resident Lee Sung-gu. “I didn´t have the courage to do it, I could only just watch,” the 79-year-old told AFP, describing how all houses in the area were destroyed.

Many of those killed were residents -- in particular the elderly. At least three firefighters were killed, and a pilot in a firefighting helicopter died when his aircraft crashed in a mountain area, officials said.

Last year was South Korea´s hottest year on record, although temperatures in the months running up to the blaze had been colder than last year, and in line with the country´s 30-year average, Korea Meteorological Administration data shows.

But the fire-hit region had been experiencing unusually dry weather with below-average precipitation, authorities said. “This wildfire has once again exposed the harsh reality of a climate crisis unlike anything we´ve experienced before,” disaster chief Lee said.

“The affected areas have seen only half the average rainfall, coupled with unusually strong winds, which have drastically accelerated the spread of the fire and intensified the damage,” he said. Some types of extreme weather have a well-established link with climate change, such as heatwaves or heavy rainfall.

Other phenomena, such as forest fires, droughts, snowstorms and tropical storms can result from a combination of complex factors. Yeh Sang-Wook, professor of climatology at Seoul´s Hanyang University, told AFP that the lack of rainfall had dried out the land “creating favourable conditions for wildfires”.