South Korea wildfires ‘largest on record’; 26 dead, over 36,000 hectares burnt | In pictures

INA-  sources


The wildfires raging across South Korea are now "the largest on record", the country's disaster chief said Thursday. The current wildfires have burned more forest than any previous blazes. The death toll rose to 26.

"The wildfire is spreading rapidly," Lee Han-kyung, disaster and safety division chief, was quoted by AFP as saying. He said, “The forest damage has reached 35,810 hectares, already exceeding the area affected by the 2000 East Coast wildfire, previously the largest on record, by more than 10,000 hectares.”

Multiple wildfires have been raging across South Korea's southeastern regions since last Friday. According to the Associated Press, the government has mobilised thousands of people, dozens of helicopters and other equipment to extinguish the blazes.

 Officials said strong winds are hampering their efforts.

 Authorities suspect human error caused several of the wildfires, including cases where people started fires while clearing overgrown grass from family tombs or with sparks during welding work.

The wildfires that originated in Uiseong have been moving rapidly eastward, spreading almost to the coast, carried by gusty winds and with dry conditions aggravating the situation.

Experts said the Uiseong fire showed extremely unusual spread in terms of its scale and speed, and that climate change is expected to make wildfires more frequent and deadly globally.

Higher temperatures amplified by human-caused climate change contributed to the existing seasonally dry conditions, "turning dry landscapes into dangerous fire fuel" in the region, the Climate Central group, an independent body made up of scientists and researchers, said in a report.




source: mint