Fires blaze on as efforts hampered by smoke, winds

Korean Army soldiers join the firefighting effort in Donghae, Gwangwon, on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

Firefighting efforts against multiple blazes in the east of the country made slow progress as firefighters were hampered by smoke and shifting winds, officials said Tuesday.

The fires have torched mountainous areas along the coast about the size of 30,000 soccer fields over the past five days, and continued despite a concerted effort to extinguish them by Monday.

Fueled by high winds and dry conditions, the blazes in Uljin, North Gyeongsang, and three Gangwon cities Gangneung, Donghae and Samcheok have burned an estimated 21,772 hectares (53,799 acres) of woodland as of 6 a.m. Tuesday morning, with the affected areas in Uljin accounting for approximately three quarters of the damage, according to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters.

The damage caused by the fires is fast approaching the record set in 2000, when an east coast wildfire lasting from April 7 to 15 burned 23,794 hectares of woodland spanning five regions, including Uljin and Gangwon's Goseong, Gangneung, Donghae and Samcheok.

While no casualties have been reported, authorities said 570 facilities and homes have been damaged and 338 people in 220 households have been displaced.

Approximately half of the fires in Uljin and Samcheok have been extinguished, while firefighters have had more success in Gangneung and Donghae, where more than 90 percent of the local blazes have been put out.

Firefighting authorities said earlier Tuesday that they saw the day as a pivotal point in the containment effort, as the wind direction is forecast to change unfavorably in the afternoon.

“We aim to finish extinguishing the main fires in Gangneung and Donghae in the morning and re-deploy some helicopters to the Uljin area,” said Choi Byeong-am, head of the Korea Forest Service (KFS), in a news conference.

They initially aimed to extinguish the main fires Monday but were disturbed by thick smoke, fog and other unfavorable weather conditions.

Choi said that firefighting authorities are also “preparing for a long-term battle because the damaged areas are very extensive.”

Besides inhabited areas close to the fires, a key focal point of the containment effort is the Geumgang Pine Tree colony, a massive forest of lush pine trees more than 200 years old, in Uljin.

Spread across an area of 2,247 hectares, the Geumgang Pine Tree colony is home to over 8,000 pine trees aged 200 years and older. The trees are prized by architectural heritage specialists for their high-quality wood, which is considered a prime construction material for traditional building restoration projects.

“Sparks have flown into the Geumgang Pine Tree colony, but firefighting efforts are under way. So far, there has been no damage to the colony,” Choi said.

The wildfire is suspected to have begun Friday morning near a mountain in Ducheon-ri, Uljin County, and spread rapidly northward to Samcheok amid strong winds reaching nearly 30 meters per second, or 67 miles per hour.

Police and the KFS said they are expanding their probe into the origin of the wildfires in Uljin without ruling out the possibility that the flames were ignited by cigarette butts from motorists.

Roadside CCTV footage suggested that the fire may have been caused by a cigarette butt discarded by a driver on a road passing a mountain in Buk-myeon, Ducheon-ri.

Separately, in Okgye, Gangneung, a 60-year-old man is accused of using a handheld butane torch to set fire to his home and nearby buildings early Saturday, which rapidly spread across the area.

The government has designated Uljin, Samcheok, Gangneung and Donghae as a special disaster zone and promised support for victims who have suffered property loss and displacement as a result of the fire.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]